4 Business Components to Target For Corporate Social Responsibility

You’ve begun your corporate social responsibility strategy strong by engaging your employees in recycling more and reducing waste. Maybe you have gone the extra mile by supporting community gardening initiatives with your company’s time and money. But have you looked at your business’s supply chain? At the core of your operations for product sales and shipping, what has changed? Looking at your operations for change can boost or revamp your CSR strategy.

The CSR company As You Sow reminds businesses to target:

1. Source Reduction: Look at reducing packaging from the start of the supply chain and choose packaging that is reusable. Or try redesigning your packaging to use less virgin content and less material. For example, many water bottle companies slimmed down their plastic bottles, which led to a great reduction of their plastic use at the source of their packaging. 

2. Recycled Content: Your company can drive the market for green products by making new products (or remaking older ones) out of recyclable materials.  You’ll save more money and reduce waste over time.

3. Recyclability and Materials Use: Look through your product packaging and remove materials that cannot be recycled easily, such as styrofoam or flexible laminate pouches, and eliminate them completely.

4. Boosting Materials Recycling: Businesses can provide and support infrastructure to help consumers, employees, and clients recycle packaging materials. Many businesses might fail in this area because they use materials that cannot be recycled, or don’t support end markets or public education for recycling their products. Businesses can change this by providing recycling bins in their workplaces and stores, supporting local initiatives that provide easy access to recycling for the public, and by creating producer responsibility programs.

Overall, a primary goal for any business going green is improving waste reduction in the supply chain. For more ways to tackle sustainability for your business, contact us.