| 4 min Read

A Guideline for Corporate Social Responsibility: Striving for Better

Begging hands with the text "We can be better. Together."

Now that we have more than 2 decades of experience running a business, we realize we still have some work to do in becoming an organization our parents, kids, communities, clients and employees are consistently proud of. So, we crafted these guidelines with Brand Fuel in mind, but we also wanted to share them as a template for those organizations who are also striving for better.

Making Corporate Social Responsibility Part of Our Company’s DNA

We will strive to:

  • Establish a Social Good Committee to create and implement an ongoing plan for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) efforts
  • Invite others along for our company’s CSR ride: employee families, vendors, clients, partners
  • Treat our employees with respect and dignity
  • Be committed to providing fair compensation for employees
  • Create a safe and healthy work environment
  • Encourage carpooling
  • Involve our team in internal and external mentorship programs
  • Make our Corporate Social Responsibility plan available online to be fully transparent

Strengthening Our Community Through Philanthropy & Corporate Citizenship

Band Together logoWe will strive to:

  • Empower our employees to volunteer for nonprofits aligned with our organization’s ethos and social mission
  • Encourage employees to join a nonprofit committee or board
  • Offer in-kind resources to nonprofits
  • Directly contribute a meaningful percentage of income to nonprofits
  • Prioritize buying from local companies and mission-driven suppliers

Committing to Environmental Responsibility

We will strive to:https://www.brandfuel.com/brand-fuels-sustainability-pledge-initiative/

  • Improve on and activate our sustainability pledge.
  • Develop and implement energy-efficient policies
  • Establish a paperless environment
  • Turn lights and laptops off and use low use power settings
  • Implement eco-friendly lighting and plumbing
  • Reducing our carbon footprint and/or pay for carbon offsets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
  • Upcycle
  • Reduce waste
  • Conserve water
  • Participate in office recycling programs
  • Rethink packaging by using stackability, emptiability, recycled/recyclable content and design for reuse

Voting with Our Supply Chain Dollars

Fair Trade Certified logo and B Corporation Certified logoWe will strive to:

  • Source ethically, with an emphasis on fair labor practices
  • Purchase though suppliers who are CSR-focused and have a working, sustainable CSR plan
  • Purchase organics, fair trade and cruelty-free products
  • Use couriers with hybrid fuel fleets to reduce reliance on petroleum
  • Work with companies that are certified B Corporations

Creating a Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive Environment

We will strive to:

  • Hire a diverse workforce, including:
    • Veterans
    • Those with varying ages
    • Those with varying backgrounds: cultural, race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation
    • Those with disabilities
  • Create environments for fair treatment, access, opportunity and advancement for all
  • Create environments in which individuals/groups can be and feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate. Some best practices for reference.

Preserving Our Industry/Product Compliance

Logos for Quality Certification Alliance and PPAI Code of ConductWe will strive to:

  • Volunteer for industry nonprofits including PPAI, PPEF, & PromoKitchen
  • Sell products that are sustainable and won’t end up in the landfill quickly
  • Buy from suppliers who minimize over-packaging materials
  • Present products associated with giving back to nonprofits to clients
  • Offer branded gear in-kind or deeply discounted to nonprofits
  • Volunteer as a team (distributors + vendors + service providers)
  • Leverage our medium through successful cause-marketing campaigns
  • Offer in-kind marketing resources to nonprofits
  • Abandon customers that are not in balance with our company’s ethos
  • Educate our staff on product quality/safety, social/environmental compliance
  • Be “Product Safety Aware” and take the PPAI Code of Conduct

We hope this template inspires you and your organization to consider how your company can make a meaningful impact on the world by being both profitable and altruistic.

Text says "Sustainable Development Goals."If you’re interested in developing a Corporate Social Responsibility Plan, here are additional resources for your consideration:

  1. Find out how to use your business as a force for good on this Promocares Podcast
  2. Consider learning more about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
  3. B Lab, the non-profit behind the B Corp movement has created a free SDG Action Manager that you can use as a resource.
  4. If you would like to measure your impact using B Corps as a benchmark you can also use the free B Corp Impact Assessment to start measuring what matters.