2000s: From CSR to responsible business

By 2001, we had 700 member companies. Competitive advantage for individual companies and the pressures of sustainability as a business challenge were the new business drivers.

We turned our attention to how business carries out its core activities and the effects it has in the workplace, the marketplace, the community and on the environment.

A more accurate language

Our language switched to ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR), but this was often used to describe community involvement only. We then began to refer to ‘corporate responsibility’ (CR), which was understood to include environmental impacts too.

However, US business often linked CR with ‘corporate governance’, so we moved to ‘responsible business’. This signifies how business aims to operate overall, as well as particular activities and programmes.

Maintaining the momentum

By the middle of the decade, we had launched the Rural Action Campaign (in 2001), the CR Index, CommunityMark, the forerunner to our international operation, which is now CSR360, Skills for Life and Business Action on Health.

In 2006, 829 organisations took part in Business in the Community benchmarking activities, showing that our members value the opportunity to compare their progress with that of their peers.

By 2007, 635 business leaders had been involved in 43 Seeing is Believing visits across the UK, and 110 companies had publicly committed to report through the CR Index. In the same year, 134 companies took part in the Business in the Environment (BiE) Index, agreeing to benchmark and disclose their submissions to the public.

Content of this page written by Helen Baker, Concise Content