Table of Contents
Overview of Corporate Social Responsibility 3
Archie Carroll’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility 4
Advantages of Corporate Social Responsibility 4
Innovation 5
Cost Savings 5
Long-Term Thinking 5
Public Image and Brand Differentiation 5
Employee Engagement 5
Arguments against Corporate Social Responsibility 6
Misalignment with Profit Maximization 6
Accountability and Green-washing 6
Business Mandate and Skill Set 7
Issue Statement 7
Stakeholders 7
Aritiza’s Current CSR Strategy 8
The Social and Environmental Responsibility Team 8
CSR Initiative – People 8
CSR Initiative – Planet 9
CSR Initiative – Customers 10
CSR Initiative – Community 10
CSR Initiative – Aritzia’s Vendor Code of Conduct 10
Lululemon’s CSR Strategy 11
CSR Initiative – Lululemon’s Vendor Code of Ethics 12
CSR initiative – Employees, Human Rights & Working Conditions 12
CSR Initiative – Environmental Impacts: 12
CSR Initiative - Elevating Community: 13
CSR Initiative: Industry Collaboration: 13
CSR Initiative – Raw Material Sources: 13
CSR Pyramid in Lululemon 13
Practices to Emulate for Aritzia: 14
VanCity’s CSR Strategy: 14
CSR Initiative – Environmental Sustainability: 14
CSR Initiative – Financial Literacy and Basic Banking for Communities: 15
CSR Initiative – Living Wage 15
CSR Pyramid in VanCity 16
Practices to Emulate for Aritzia: 16
Halliburton CSR strategy: 17
Contradiction to CSR Strategy: 17
Example 1: Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 17
Example 2: Dick Cheney 17
Example 3: Unsafe Military Conditions 18
Example 4: Sexual Assault 18
Practices to Emulate for Aritzia: 18
Why We Chose Lululemon, Vancity & Halliburton 19
Common Elements between Lululemon and Vancity’s CSR Strategies 20
Recommendation 20
Action Plan 20
Phase 1: Immediate Collaboration with Outside Companies 20
Phase 2: Short-term Employee Initiatives 21
Phase 3: Long-term Action 22
Appendices 26
Appendix A: Interview 26
Appendix B: Stakeholder Assessment 30
Appendix C: Stakeholder Typology 31
Appendix D: Stakeholder Commitment Chart 32
Works Cited 33
Overview of Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined as “the voluntary activities undertaken by a company to operate in an economic, social and environmentally sustainable manner” (Government of Canada, 2015); CSR consists of the efforts that go beyond what is required by government regulation or suggested by environmental protection groups.
CSR first began to gain popularity in the 1960’s, when there was significant growth in the formalization of the definition of CSR in textbooks and articles. There were many arguments in favor of and many against CSR at this time and some companies began to implement forms of CSR; however, CSR as we know it today didn’t become the norm in business until the late 1990’s (Carroll, 1999).
The key element of CSR is that companies must recognize that they have responsibilities beyond their marketplace transactions and the interests of their owners or shareholders; they hold not only economic responsibility, but a social responsibility as well (Siedl, Corporate Social Responsibility Lecture, 2014). There are four levels of CSR that should be upheld by businesses; these levels are explained in the section below.
Archie Carroll’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility
There are four levels of Archie Carroll’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility. The first level, which is required, is economic responsibility, which is the responsibility to shareholders to maximize profits, maintain a strong competitive position within industry and strive to achieve the highest operational efficiency attainable. The second level, which is required, is legal responsibility, which is the responsibility for the company to ensure all operations are in adherence with the all laws and regulations as stated by government. The third level, which is expected, is ethically responsibility. This is when a company’s operations are in alignment with the
