The top 10 questions every aspiring green firm should ask

You are a business that wants to be ethical. You have seen the buzz around corporate social responsibility (CSR), and understand what it could mean for you as a company in terms of customer perception. The board likes the idea, but now you have to knuckle down and do it. What are the top 10 questions that you should be asking yourself as you embark down the long, complicated road towards CSR?

Have you fitted CSR into your core business model?
It's all too easy to simply start up a corporate philanthropy division and throw money at the problem, says Liz Cutler Maw, executive director of Net Impact, a non-profit organisation that works to create business leaders who understand and support CSR. "Corporate responsibility needs to be integrated into everything the company does," she advises. "That means the company has to say that it's serious about that commitment."

Are you playing the long game?
That leads into the second point – longevity. CSR requires an investment, in terms of people and process, and resources. Deciding to embark on a CSR strategy requires more than a simple up-front outlay, however; it has to be sustained. Companies cannot simply stop investing when times get hard and they need the money for something else, warns Maw. Companies that begin and then stop when the going gets tough risk looking whimsical and doing themselves more harm than good.

Have you identified the business case?
A sustained investment requires a business case. What's yours? Ben Davies, director of membership relations at CSR Europe, an information network for ethical business, says that there are three main ways to perceive the business case for CSR. The first one is cost savings. Companies that recycle water or reduce their energy usage could shave expenses from their bottom line. The other is risk mitigation. "Bad reputations go a long way," he says – and litigation against a company that has failed to fulfill a social contract in some way could be just as damaging. The third area lies in new business opportunities. "Some of the big challenges coming up also open up new areas of business," says Davies, citing General Electric's EcoImagination product line as a prime example of a green initiative focused firmly on developing new sales opportunities.

Do you have a CSR czar?
Having a senior executive who can help win the hearts and minds of the board is a useful tactic – some companies, such as Sun Microsystems, for example, have a dedicated executive. Others might put together a team under a vice-president. Either way, a dedicated central function to promote and co-ordinate CSR efforts will help to create some cohesion.

Have you won the hearts and minds of as many business functions as possible?
Simply centralising CSR will often not be enough, says Davies. Not only do CSR officers sometimes have to persuade the board to take the concept seriously, but they must also reach out to the rest of the organisation. CSR stretches across many different parts of the organisation. For example, says Maw, if you are to effectively promote CSR in the company, human resources should be involved. "You have to look for people that have a basic understanding of what your CSR values might be," she says. HR can also be useful in connecting CSR metrics with performance reviews.

What are your indicators?
Ideally, you'll have some goals in mind when implementing CSR. Some aspects of CSR may be intangible, but at least a few of these will be quantifiable. How much carbon could the company reduce by initiating energy-saving measures? What does that correspond to in terms of cost savings?

Are you asking the hard questions?
Persuading all of your field engineers to save petrol by not leaving the engines on their vans idling is an excellent short-term efficiency measure. But not all choices are so easy to make. The truly ethical company takes a hard look at broader processes that may be more difficult to change. A good example is making all participants in a supply chain more accountable for their working practices, and striving to reduce the environmental overhead of supply chain logistics. An initiative like that could take years to complete, and could become a cost centre, rather than a cost saver.

Which external stakeholders are you working with?
Supply chains are just one example of CSR scenarios in which you'll find yourself working with third parties. Those could be customers, suppliers or other business partners. "Engage in dialogue with your customers, with non-profits, with organisations working in corporate responsibility is a great way to get honest feedback on what you're doing," Maw says. It can help to avoid accusations of greenwashing by people who think that you're not doing enough, or are focusing in the wrong areas.

Are employees engaged?
Getting senior management on board and promoting CSR is a must, but to make the concept stick, staff must be engaged at a grassroots level, warns Maw. "A lot of employees will be really jazzed about this issue and will want to engage," she says. "We often hear from companies that there's so much interest among employees and they don't know how to do that." That could manifest itself in various ways, from corporate awareness programs that remind people about energy-saving tips, through to 'employee of the month'- reward programs that emphasise CSR, and perhaps even innovation programmes that invite employee ideas on how to further CSR goals.

Are you adopting a regional approach to CSR?
There are certain things that worry most people - global warming, water scarcity, and so on - but are you sure that all of your customers in different regions are worrying about the same thing? "CSR is perceived differently at a regional level. It even differs in the UK compared to the southern and eastern European and Scandinavian regions," says Davies. "You have to make it global, but ownership is implemented at a local level." Understanding what the most significant issues are locally for your business, and what customers in that area are concerned about, can help you to tailor CSR activities and connect your company with the local community.