What is Corporate Social Responsibility? - InnoTrain CSR

Responsibility or Corporate Citizenship. Therefore, it makes sense for the collection
of media reports concerning CSR to define more terms other than the CSR search
terms based on which the search in the social, corporate and ecological context is to
be conducted.
Benchmarking through media reports should be adapted to the market-specific
situation of a company, but it can be divided into the basic sectors A) own company,
B) competitors/industry and C) regional environment/locations.
To evaluate the searches and media feedback concerning CSR, it makes sense to
highlight the core aspects of social corporate responsibility clearly to be able to
compare them to the own sustainability activities. Moreover, CSR activities in the
industry can be assessed for transfer opportunities and differentiations in the own
company.
Positive reports may yield valuable insights to reflect on the sustainability
performances of the described company. In the event of negative headlines, the
question about how the described situation may have been resolved better or
avoided within the meaning of CSR and what the possible consequences for the
affected company are can be discussed.
Exercise 8.3. (approximately 90 minutes)
Ask your participants to research media reports concerning CSR-relevant topics in an
industry of your choice. For instance, you may refer to industries of the example
companies presented in this compendium.
Divide the participants into small groups to specifically cover different fields of
research. Possibilities for the research teams include:
1.) The own company
2.) Three to five competitors (including the industry-leading company)
3.) The region at the domicile of the company
4.) Environment team
5.) Social affairs team
6.) "CSR experts" team (research in specialised journals)
7.) Etc.
After completing the research, every team should hand over 5 select media reports to
another group, if at all possible. For example, "Team 5) Social affairs" will receive the
media reports from "Team 1) The own company" etc.
Ask the participants to discuss the newly received media reports in their original
group and present their core CSR characteristics in a final group discussion in
The project "InnoTrain CSR" is organized by GILDE GmbH and has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 12/2010
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