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Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) is a concept commonly used and applicable in the business world. Starting from the late 20^th century, many corporations started to think of the impacts they have on the society, mainly because the consumers became more and more aware of the corporate social responsibilities in the world. As a result, majority of these corporations opted to embark on corporate social responsibility programs which were meant to make up for the past effects on the environment while at the same time making better their corporate practices. This they did by preparing Csr reports and publishing them as proof of their efforts on conserving the environment and creating a positive impact on the society. As expected, Csr has both fans and critics.

A company that has decided to start a corporate social responsibility program has to basically include a discussion of the progress of the program in its codes of ethics, its mission statements, and also in all the sustainability news of the company published. This will make the existence of the CSR program more transparent to all concerned and interested parties. It is not uncommon to find majority of the corporations today having a CSR department that prepares and publishes sustainability news, and generally manages the company’s social programs by ensuring that the efforts of the company in the CSR field remain before the eyes of the public.

The scope of a CSR program is typically varied but mainly, most corporations will start their green marketing efforts at home because as they say, charity begins at home. This they do by trying to improve the working conditions of the employees say by extending high wages and better health benefits. Next step would mostly address local and international corporate suppliers with a main aim of creating a sustainable chain of supply by avoiding all ethically unaccepted practices.

You will also find that in many Csr reports, most corporations add a charitable aspect on their CSR programs. This is with the aim of promoting their green marketing efforts while at the same time giving back to the society. A good example would be a company that deals with oil contributing to habitat restoration in a community that is historically known to be used for extracting resources. Those who are for CSR and who advocate that these reports be made public argue that the voluntary efforts show a genuine desire of the corporations to do business is a responsible and ethical way.

Others argue that corporations whose Csr reports are well known have a high employee retaining rate and will always get the best employees and best suppliers because of their interest in acceptable business practices. Opponents on the other hand however argue that CSR programs and the Csr reports are mere smokescreens that disguise more pertinent and egregious issues. According to these detractors, when a company gives its ethical initiatives a top priority, the company can greatly bypass an important and critical consumer need or concern.