THE days when organisations could get away with "greenwash" when it comes to reporting on their corporate social responsibility initiatives are long gone. The CSR report of every major organisation is subjected to intense scrutiny these days and any imperfections or undue fuzziness, is ruthlessly exposed and commented on by the green lobby.
Scotland's Business in the Community (SBC) has been focused on encouraging firms to engage in meaningful CSR reporting since 1982.
Its chief executive, Samantha Barber, says: "When we started, CSR was about business leaders attempting to i
mprove their reputation by supporting charities – philanthropy was the name of the game. It was a way of 'giving something back' while at the same time enhancing the organisation's reputation."
Today, SBC argues, CSR reporting needs to be open, transparent, robust and targeted to a business's key stakeholders. The key underlying metrics, such as the organisation's carbon footprint, need to be measured and organisations need to be willing to have key CSR metrics audited.
SBC recognises that, particularly for smaller enterprises, carbon footprinting can be difficult. The Carbon Trust's approach is excellent but many SMEs find it prohibitively expensive in terms of time and money. Instead SBC points to the May Day Network, which is committed to supporting its members to identify and share best practice solutions to carbon footprinting SMEs.
The May Day Network started in Scotland with the Prince of Wales' Business Summit on Climate Change, held in Edinburgh last November. The first May Day Summit was held this May and since then the network has enrolled 1,354 UK members, with 127 of those Scots. The aim is to engage 10,000 businesses across the UK by 2012, and the network aims to set a carbon reduction challenge at its May 2009 summit, of 5 per cent for each of the three years from 2012 to 2014.
Some organisations are heavy energy users simply by virtue of what they do, meaning they have to be innovative and focused to achieve any meaningful reduction in their carbon footprint. Mark Williams, business strategy and climate change manager at Scottish Water, one of the biggest users of electricity in Scotland, points out that simply running pumps to move water around the country takes enormous amounts of power.
"We are very energy intensive but even so there are things we can do," he says. "We can work to ensure our pumps are efficient and we run our treatment works effectively. We are committed to delivering very challenging reductions in leakage which should also help reduce energy."
One beneficial route is self-generation. Scottish Water owns a number of small hydro-electric schemes, and these, together with combined heat and power schemes at several treatment works, allows the company to generate up to 5 per cent of its energy requirements. According to Williams, Scottish Water is also looking at doubling the renewables capacity within its own organisation.
"We have to constantly bear in mind the fact that we are a water company, not a power company," he says. "But with our new scheme for Edinburgh, at Glencorse, we can generate over 60 per cent of the energy required to run those works, and that will be a big step forward for us."
As part of its commitment to CSR, including environmental sustainability, Scottish Water took a full carbon footprinting service from the Carbon Trust. "That exercise showed we currently generate 470,000 tonnes annually of carbon dioxide equivalents from our operations and we are committed to reporting on this as we look for opportunities to address it," says Williams.
One of the challenges Scottish Water faces is that there is a strong link between improving the quality of water and the amount of energy the company consumes. Between 2002 and 2010, it will have invested almost £4bn in improving water and environmental quality and customer service.
"Installing additional treatment works and investing in public health and the environment are imperatives for us, but investment in quality does have an impact on carbon emissions. We have to be innovative and look to new ways of delivering in order to stop increasing our emissions as we improve our service to customers."
One successful way of raising the bar on CSR reporting is through industry awards schemes. Undoubtedly one of the most high profile of these is the National Business Awards, which always includes a CSR category. This year's finalists in the Scottish awards were Lloyds TSB, Scottish Power, the Radisson SAS Hotel, Edinburgh, Drivers Jonas and Aberdeen Airport, part of BAA.
Commenting on his firm making the final for the CSR award, Alasdair Ramsay, partner in charge of Scotland for Drivers Jonas, said that the firm's CSR objectives are part and parcel of a firm-wide culture that encourages openness, independent thought and original ideas. "We are fully aware that success does not come solely through experienced staff who work hard on behalf of our clients, it is also attributable to how much we give back to the community and how much we want to nurture and care for the world around us," he says. "This philosophy is ideally suited to an independent partnership."
Helen McNeill, strategy communications manager at Lloyds TSB Scotland, the winner this year, says that, over the past five years, the bank has doubled in size. Its focus on its core brand values of "ease, empathy and expertise" mandate a responsible approach across every facet of CSR.
"This runs from a focus on the community, to young people, charity, customers, our staff and the environment," she says. "We focus, too, on themes such as financial inclusion, the arts and sport. CSR is embedded into the ethos of our whole organisation, from senior managers to frontline staff – everyone plays their part."
"Our focus on CSR derives from our heritage, our connection with people and communities across Scotland, and our belief that we can only be successful if we act responsibly."
Lisa Stephenson, director of marketing and communications at Lloyds TSB, says: "The National Business Awards recognised eight years of hard work in creating and delivering a responsible agenda at Lloyds TSB Scotland. CSR is now embedded in every aspect of our business – it's simply part of our ethos."
