Sustainability is in fashion: What used to be popular among greenies has long since become part of the zeitgeist and is also reflected in the expectations of customers, employees and business partners. These expectations can be seen in what is known as Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR. It describes the social responsibility of a company that goes beyond the minimum legal requirements. Companies make an additional contribution to sustainability on a voluntary basis. This includes not only core business activities and the market environment, but also workplace design, the environment and the interests of other stakeholders. In an age of globalization and increasingly complex supply chains, but also due to growing social awareness of sustainability issues, CSR has become more and more important in recent years and should therefore be in the self-interest of every company.

A challenge for supply chain management

Comprehensive CSR management is becoming a major challenge, especially in industries whose supply chains also reach into developing and emerging countries where the social responsibility of companies plays only a secondary role. What can happen when CSR is not an integral part of supply chain management is demonstrated by incidents in the textile industry, where inadequate occupational safety and fire protection measures in production plants repeatedly result in deaths and injuries. The same applies to the energy sector and the food industry. In this context, the so-called greenwashing is enjoying alarming popularity: By means of targeted glossing over, concealment or even misinformation, consumers are to be given the impression that the company’s supply chain is supposedly sustainable. The principles of CSR are thus misused as a perfidious marketing tool. However, the focus is primarily on economic goals, because those who can give their own image a green light tend to achieve higher prices on the market. Green products sell well – and expensive.

Joining forces to achieve great things: CSR as part of the way we see ourselves

This makes it all the more important not to view CSR as a marketing tool, but to make its relevance clear at all levels of the company, and to interpret it as part of its corporate identity. CSR thus becomes a strategic task, the implementation of which requires all managers and employees of a company. Professional e-learning on CSR and its business implications can increase the acceptance of your own staff and provide valuable impulses for the implementation of your company's CSR strategy. With its e-learning "Corporate Social Responsibility", Security-Island provides an integrated training solution, which can be efficiently implemented company-wide, even in several languages.