| The
Social Venture Network Standards of Corporate Social Responsibility
Origin. The
Social Venture Network (SVN) was created in 1987 to develop an association
of business and social entrepreneurs dedicated to the idea that
business can be a potent force for solving social problems. The
SVN began to develop a written set of standards for business responsibility
in 1995. The Standards first appeared in 1999.
Purpose .
The Standards of Corporate Social Responsibility are
intended to be a compendium – that is, a short, but complete summary
– of strategies and techniques for improving organizational performance.
They represent an effort to define the landscape of corporate
social responsibility and provide tools for organizations to make
continuous improvement that is in concert with their overall business
strategy.
Critical Content
. The Standards identify nine foundational
principles for corporate social responsibility:
-
Ethics
– The company develops and implements ethical standards and
practices in dealings with all company stakeholders. The company’s
commitment to ethical behavior is widely communicated in an
explicit statement and is rigorously upheld.
-
Accountability
– The company acknowledges that many constituents
have legitimate interests in its activities and discloses information
in a timely matter so that stakeholders can make informed decisions.
Stakeholder need-to-know takes precedence over inconvenience
and cost to the corporation.
- Governance – The company balances
the interests of employees, customers, investors, lenders, suppliers,
affected communities, and other stakeholders in strategic objectives
as well as day-to-day management and investment decisions. The
company manages its resources conscientiously and effectively,
seeking to enhance both financial and human capital.
- Financial Returns – The company compensates
providers of capital with an attractive and competitive rate of
return while protecting company assets and sustainability of these
returns. Company policies are established to enhance long-term
growth and shareholder value.
- Employment Practices – The company
engages in human resource management practices that promote personal
and professional employee development, diversity at all levels,
empowerment, fair labor practices, competitive wages and benefits,
and a safe, harassment-free, family-friendly work environment.
- Business Relationships – The company
is fair and honest with suppliers, distributors, licensees, and
agents. It promotes and monitors the corporate social responsibility
of its partners.
- Products and Services – The company
identifies and responds to the needs, desires, and rights of its
customers and ultimate consumers. It strives to provide the
highest levels of product and service value, including a strong
commitment to integrity, customer satisfaction, and safety.
- Community Involvement – The company
fosters an open relationship with the community in which it operates
and plays a proactive, cooperative, and where appropriate, collaborative
role in making the community a better place to live and conduct
business.
- Environmental Protection – The company
strives to protect and restore the environment and promote sustainable
development with products, processes, services and other activities.
It is committed to minimizing the use of energy and natural
resources and decreasing waste and harmful emissions. The company
integrates these considerations into day-to-day management decisions.
Implementation. The
SVN Standards include not only principles (i.e.,
brief value statements), but also practices (means by which
an organization can improve its performance relative to a principle),
measures (tangible indicators of performance), and resources
(potential sources of additional information). Taken as a
whole, the Standards are analogous to the Caux Round Table
Self-Assessment
and Improvement Process,
another tool designed to help organizations improve their performance.
The Standards suggest
behavior, but they do not set a level of performance that is considered
adequate. While the Standards’ authors hold that their
principles are universally valid, they recognize there is no such
thing as a generic company or a generic prescription for social
responsibility: factors such as economic sector, governance, geographic
scope, etc. must be considered. Therefore, it is assumed that companies
who wish to improve their social performance will implement those
pieces of the Standards most useful to their situation.
To visit this code in its
entirety please visit:
http://www.svn.org/initiatives/standards.html
30.June
2003
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