CSR Management System - Technical report

Rapport
Id:
2002-18

The results documented in this report are worked out through a Joint Industry Project between the Western Norway Research Institute (Vestlandsforskning), DNV and the Norwegian state railway, NSB BA. NSB BA as an industry partner initiated and participated in the project in order to receive input from academia in their practical work with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

This report aims at contributing to the development of CSR from the theoretical to a more practical level. It looks into how companies can work to ensure that they fulfil their social, environmental and economical responsibilities. The close co-operation with NSB BA has contributed to the applicability of the results also for other companies.

The report gives guidelines on how to choose social indicators and how to implement a CSR management system. Furthermore, the connection between CSR and Sustainable Development is discussed, and it is shown that these two concepts broadly cover the same aspects.

There is a growing demand for companies to report on CSR issues. The proverb “what gets measured gets managed” entails that the very choice of indicators is a core challenge when working with CSR. Chapter 3 gives a theoretical foundation for which considerations that should be made when social indicators are to be selected. This together with the matrix of possible indicators in Appendix 5 gives
useful guidance on how to pick the right indicators for your specific company.

An indicator system will, however, not be enough, but should be integrated into a CSR management system. Chapter 4 takes into account that many companies already have management system(s) based on Deming’s PDCA model, and seeks to give guidance on how to incorporate CSR in their existing systems. Real commitment from the Top Management, learning and improvement are keywords.

rapport-18-02.pdf (357.93 KB)