It’s the start of the year and time for new projects and plans. As last year, we have drawn up an agenda of items and events are likely to be of key importance in the field of CSR in 2011. 

EU perspective on CSR 

Let’s kick off with the institutional context. The European Commission is expected to publish its third Communication on CSR half way through the year, as announced during the latest European Multistakeholder Forum on CSR. This comes 10 years after the acclaimed Green Paper on CSR, also written by the EU Commission, which represented a landmark definition of CSR, now widely used. This new document should offer important information and reflections on the development of social responsibility in the coming years. 

Integrated reporting 

Another difficult task ahead is in the evolution of CSR reporting. In Italy, as elsewhere, work has officially commenced on defining the model of the integrated report: a document that encompasses and unifies data, information, strategy and language that has been until now separated into a financial report on one hand and a social report on the other. An important event that could accelerate the progression of such a model is the next G8 Summit, to be held in France, where the theme of integrated reporting will be granted the honour of appearing on the official agenda. 

Social media 

Still on the CSR communication horizon, 2011 could well be the year of the Web 2.0 explosion in the world of social responsibility, especially for those companies that are more emphatically and deeply involved in the sustainability agenda. These companies already boast excellent social media integration in the field of CSR (seen in the examples of Nestlé, Telefonica and Edison in Italy). Nevertheless, many businesses are not yet fully aware of the power of social media - which is revolutionising communications from all points of view - in the CSR domain. This is particularly evident if one considers that CSR is becoming more and more appreciated. Various studies by Lundquist on the topic, such as the latest online survey about stakeholder engagement, have demonstrated the desire for ongoing dialogue, in real time and personalised, between companies and stakeholders. Look out for dedicated Justmeans conferences in London (the Social Media and Stakeholder Engagement conference on Feb. 28 and the Social Media and CSR conference on May 11). 

ISO 26000 

Another event worth mentioning brings us back to the forecasts of last year: initially predicted for mid-2010, the new CSR guideline ISO 26000 was published on 1 November. Therefore we expect that 2011 will be an important “test” year to verify the effectiveness of this guideline as an instrument: even if it is not a certification scheme, it may be capable of forming a internationally-shared approach to CSR in terms of principles, concepts, practices and language.

Volunteering 

Coming back to Europe: at the end of the day, perhaps the initiatives held as part of the European Year of Volunteering will be the necessary motivation for companies to be more socially responsible – which is by definition a voluntary activity. Corporate responsibility is needed now more than ever at such a time of economic crisis and jobless recoveries, of restructuring and out-sourcing. But even these situations are a stimulus, perhaps the most important stimulus, to acting in a socially responsible way.

Posted by: Andrea DiTuri

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Francesca Magliulo 03am January 20 Thanks Andrea.Your post is very helpful. As Edison company, we are working on these issues, specially socialnetworks http://(www.edisongeneration.i.. . View Full Comment Close Full Comment

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