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EEF
ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE GROWTH THROUGH CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
18th November 2011
With increasing pressure to meet customer requirements, skill shortages and spiralling raw material and energy costs, should manufacturers be investing valuable time implementing Corporate Responsibility (CR)?
Greg Roberts, Senior Environmental Advisor at EEF explains that these are the very reasons why they should.
Obtain and Retain
“Strong customer relationships are the key to long term growth.”
Addressing CR is paramount to obtaining and retaining customers. Speaking to manufacturers, it is clear that they are increasingly being asked more CR related questions when tendering for new contracts, but also that existing customers are increasingly adding social and environmental criteria to supplier audits.
Even if these questions are being answered adequately, manufacturing firms are missing a trick if they are not thinking about CR more strategically. Adopting strategic principles for CR allows a company to stop being reactive, and to start being proactive, anticipating customer needs and aligning with their customers strategic direction.
Clearly one of the most powerful functions of CR is the ability to anticipate requirements and demonstrate to customers that you are serious about the long term relationship and working together to meet their objectives.
Prioritise and Recognise
“It is crucial to distinguish between what’s important and what’s not.”
From our experience it is apparent that manufacturers have already undertaken some great environmental and social initiatives. Just think of your own organisation. How much voluntary and charitable work is undertaken and how much waste do you now recycle?
One problem however, is that these endeavours are not necessarily being recognised within and outside the company, often because of their ad hoc nature they are hard to measure and report on.
Adopting a strategic approach to CR provides a framework that will help you determine what’s important for your organisation. Whether the emphasis is on increasing orders, innovation, improving skills or reducing material resources and energy costs, a company needs to be clear what’s a priority and, just as importantly, what is not.
Once priorities are established, targets can be set and progress monitored. Your achievements can then be communicated to your shareholders, customers, staff and other key stakeholders, ensuring that your achievements are recognised and that the business benefits are realised.
How to start?
Many manufacturers have not invested in CR because they don’t know where to start. It’s often seen as a nebulous subject, with uncertain or intangible business benefits.
Graham Sprigg, Managing Director of IMS Consulting, a firm specialising in corporate responsibility and sustainability strategy and communications, gives this simple advice on how to get started.
“Stakeholder engagement is the key to successful CR. By engaging stakeholders on key issues and assessing how important these issues are to sustaining and growing the business, organisations are able to develop strategic priorities and align them with business growth."
By defining clear objectives and targets, they can invest in the right areas, anticipate change (e.g. in regulations or industry standards) and communicate their achievements back to their stakeholders - whether customers, staff, shareholders, supply chain or local communities.
Effective engagement needs to be properly planned and implemented. It begins by understanding who your stakeholders are and asking them the right questions. It’s also about informing them of progress and achievement on the issues in which they’re most interested, in the most cost effective and efficient manner.”
EEF wants to help Manufacturers start on the process to implementing CR, and will be running free workshops entitled Achieving Sustainable Growth through Corporate Responsibility, starting in Bristol on the 29th November. For further information please go to www.eef.org.uk/events or email groberts@eef.org.uk.
