CSR IN UK RETAIL INDUSTRY

CSR in UK retail industry

Corporate social responsibility

Introduction

During the past decade the concept of sustainability has consistently moved higher up political, media, investment and public agendas. While sustainability is increasingly seen to be everyone's concern, there has been growing awareness that large retailers have a pivotal role to play in promoting sustainability in that they are the intermediaries between primary producers and manufacturers on the one hand and customers on the other. At the same time, many large retailers are increasingly keen to publicly report on their sustainability agendas, commitments and achievements for a variety of reasons. Thus, many large retailers have been determined to demonstrate their interest in the wellbeing of the environment, their employees and the communities they serve, to promote the transparency of their operations, to better manage risk, to enhance brand value and to grow their market share (Amsler, 2009, 111).

Corporate social responsibility

The term corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to actions and activities undertaken by private profit-making enterprises with the ostensible objective of demonstrating that they are good citizens of the communities in which they operate and that they pursue objectives other than maximizing their profits. Firms engage in CSR activities in response to demand from the public that the firms be responsible to all stakeholders, not just the investors who are interested only in profits. A broadened definition of stakeholders can include employees, suppliers, customers, and the society at large.

Sustainability

The concept of sustainability can be traced back to the thirteenth century but in more recent times it appeared in the environmental literature in the 1970s and since then it has attracted increasingly widespread attention. Jamieson (1998, p. 184) suggested that “most people's thoughts about the meaning of sustainability are probably simple and grand: sustainability is about human survival and the avoidance of ecological disaster” but he recognized that “professional discourse, on the other hand, is complex and technical” (p. 184). Defining this concept is not straightforward and a number of diverse and contested meanings can be identified.

While sustainability has attracted widespread political support and has become applied to many areas of human Endeavour, the concept has also attracted criticism. Robinson summarized three sets of criticisms. First, that the concept is vague in that it means very different things to different people and organizations. Clark, for example, writing in The Times newspaper argued “in the absence of any precise meaning the concept of sustainability is pointless. It could mean virtually anything and therefore means absolutely nothing”. Second, that it attracts hypocrites who use the language of sustainability to promote and defend unsustainable activities. Third, that it fosters delusions in that it fails to acknowledge that the current rates of economic growth are simply unsustainable and that it draws attention away not only from the need to develop new ways of organizing how people can relate to the natural world but also from the need for fundamental social and political change.

As interest in sustainability has gathered momentum, a number of ...