“Thanks for meeting with me,” Roberto said. “Let’s talk through CER and how it fits into our corporate social responsibility program.”
“Thanks for doing this,” Andrea responded. “The time is right for us to get on board with this environmental stuff. While our DEI program is one aspect of our corporate social responsibility, we should build out an environmental program to meet the other component of CSR. In my limited research, I read that a robust corporate social responsibility program boosts employee morale, retention and productivity as employees work under a shared social goal. These are all good things for our small company. But so far, we’ve only focused on the people side of CSR.”
“Exactly,” said Roberto. “But do you know what, exactly, corporate environmental responsibility is? I’m having a hard time conceptualizing it in the context of our small tech business. We aren’t in mining or oil refining or another business that has an obvious environmental impact. So, what kind of environmental responsibility do we have?”
“Well, we all have an obligation to save the world,” Andrea half-joked. “Seriously, corporate environmental responsibility is a business’s duty to abstain from damaging natural environments and to mitigate the environmental damage that comes from our business operations. I know we are a small business full of desk workers, but we still use paper, our employees’ work travel results in carbon emissions and our break room sees endless use of plastic utensils each year. We may not be an obvious polluter, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore our environmental responsibility or not be thinking of ways we can mitigate our environmental impact.”
“I’m a big proponent of small actions making significant impact,” Roberto states. “So, what do we do now?”
“I guess we start looking around to find opportunities to improve, listen to what other people or companies are doing and build our internal team to try to take some action,” Andrea concluded.
Key Considerations
Corporate social responsibility programs consist of both initiatives to assist people and initiatives to care for the environment.
All businesses, even those not commonly considered polluters or major contributors to greenhouse gases, can take actions to protect the environment.
A corporate environmental responsibility program can help motivate, retain and engage your employees as all work toward a common goal.
What would you like to do next?
Want additional resources to learn more about topics discussed in this path?
Legal disclaimer: Resources provided in this story is for informational purposes only; it is not legal, tax or accounting advice. This story may contain hyperlinks to websites operated by parties other than TriNet. Such hyperlinks are provided for reference only. TriNet does not control such websites and is not responsible for their content. Inclusion of such hyperlinks on this site does not necessarily imply any endorsement of the material on such websites or association with their operators.
Lift yourself up!
Every day is a new beginning and an opportunity to Rise. Join us for inspiring stories, tools, and tips from real people - all delivered right to your inbox.