Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility

The Commission has defined CSR as the responsibility of Enterprises for their impact on society. Therefore, CSR should be company-led. (European Commission, COM/2011/0681 final ) We can speak about 4 levels of CSR strategy:

• Financial responsibility.
• Legal responsibility.
• Moral responsibility.
• Voluntary or philanthropic liability.

Thus, Companies can become socially responsible by:

• integrating social, environmental, ethical, consumer, and human rights concerns into their business strategy and operations
• following the law. Indeed, public authorities play a supporting role through voluntary policy measures and, where necessary, complementary regulation.

Usually addressed in policies by large companies, CSR might apply to any organization seeking for achieving a balance of economic, environmental, and social imperatives, taking care of people belonging to the organization, but also external stakeholders and shareholders, and any element of the company environment to guarantee a correct impact.

The Commission promotes CSR in the EU and encourages enterprises to adhere to international guidelines and principles. More specifically, the EU’s policy is built on its 2011 renewed strategy for CSR, which aims to align European and global approaches to CSR. This strategy stresses the importance of enhancing the visibility of CSR and disseminating good practices, through the integration of CSR into education, training, and research. The strategy also improves self and co-regulation processes (European Commission, Official Journal C11, 14.1.2011, p.1) and companies´ disclosure of social and environmental information.

Source: image by freepik

The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) introduced a concept related to CSR called RBC (Responsible Business Conduct) understood as “making a positive contribution to economic, environmental and social progress with a view to achieving sustainable development and avoiding and addressing adverse impacts related to an enterprise’s direct and indirect operations, products or services”. The OECD provides guidelines for multinational enterprises, that apply to business operations and supply chains and how they can help gain and retain a social license to operate.

Research shows that 87% of customers consider CSR in their purchase decisions, and that “given similar price and quality, consumers [91%] are likely to switch brands to one that is associated with a good cause.” Also, 90% of consumers would be ready to boycott a company for poor business practices. Beliefs about the role of business in society (Conecomm, s.f.)  Many customers, especially millennials, expect that fashion brands have a positive image and leave a positive impact. Major fashion brands already integrated this new factor and employ CSR to launch promotional campaigns on their fair behaviours, as we will see in the next sections.

For fashion enterprises, CSR and RBC provide important benefits in terms of risk management, cost savings, access to capital, customer relationships, HR management, sustainability of operations, ability to innovate, and eventually profit.