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GLOSSARY OF TERMS Corporate Social Responsibility CSR is concerned with treating the stakeholders of the firm ethically or in a responsible manner. ‘Ethically or responsible’ means treating key stakeholders in a manner deemed acceptable in civilised societies. Social includes economic and environmental responsibility. Stakeholders exist both within a firm and outside. The wider aim of social responsibility is to create higher and higher standards of living, while preserving the profitability of the corporation, for peoples both within and outside the corporation Original Source: Michael Hopkins: A Planetary Bargain: Corporate Social Responsibility Comes of Age (Macmillan, UK, 1998) Revised August 2005 Corporate citizenship is about business taking greater account of its social and environmental - as well as its financial - footprints. Source: Simon Zadek The Civil Corporation, (p7, Earthscan, London, 2001) Corporate Governance Corporate Governance is concerned with holding the balance between economic and social goals and between individual and communal goals. The corporate governance framework is there to encourage the efficient use of resources and equally to require accountability for the stewardship of those resources. The aim is to align as nearly as possible the interests of individuals, corporations and society" Source: Sir Adrian Cadbury in ‘Global Corporate Governance Forum’, World Bank, 2000) Corporate Sustainability aligns an organisation's products and services with stakeholder expectations, thereby adding economic, environmental and social value (Price WaterhouseCoopers). Ethics the science of morals in human conduct. Source: Oxford Dictionary Ethical Accounting is the process through which the company takes up a dialogue with major stakeholders to report on past activities with a view to shaping future ones. Source: John Rosthorn: Business Ethics Auditing - More than a Stakeholder's Toy (Journal of Business Ethics 00: 1-11, 2000, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands) Ethical Auditing is regular, complete and documented measurements of compliance with the company's published policies & procedures. Source: John Rosthorn, ibid. Ethical Book-Keeping: is systematic, reliable maintaining of accessible records for corporate activities which reflect on its conduct and behaviour. Source: JR, ibid. Reputation Assurance: A number of common global principles for the business environment assembled to provide quantitative and trend information. (JR, ibid.) Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000): An international standard for human rights in the industrial setting set up by CEPAA in the USA. MHCi provided comments and suggestions in the early days of SA8000. AccountAbility 1000 (AA1000): is a process standard to assist an organisation in the definition of goals and targets, the measurement of progress made against these targets, the auditing and reporting of performance, and feedback mechanisms. MHCi staff participated in the setting up of the background to AA1000 and is still actively involved. Social Reporting: Non-financial data covering staff issues, community economic developments, stakeholder involvement and can include voluntarism and environmental performance. Sustainable Development: Environmental impact measurement, improvements, monitoring and reporting . (JR, ibid). Comments and suggestions We would be really pleased if you had any better ideas (not difficult!) suggestions, references, other definitions that we could use. Please just send us an E-mail |
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