SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE

Socially Responsible

Socially Responsible

The logistics commerce has obtained globally, a lot of publicity considering the industry's mind-set on, and actions in, corporate responsibility topics. The distinct stakeholder assemblies are involved in the logistics industry's ways of activity in relation to these issues. The logistics commerce has had to react to these new types of claims and inquiries from the stakeholders. The aim of this paper is to present the current situation on the logistics industry's grade of activity on CSR, through enquiring the world's premier players UPS, FedEx and DHL and their attitudes to CSR reporting. The empirical study is conducted by gathering information from the named companies' annual reports, possible environmental and social impact reports, their involvement in the international CSR initiatives such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and their presence in the various sustainability indexes. The last part of the paper will try to establish the possible reasons of action or inaction by these companies on CSR issues and its implications on their corporate strategy.

Introduction

Corporate communal blame and Logistics Sector

The functions and responsibilities of business in society, in particular global business, are being characterised more amply by an expanding variety of stakeholders. (Bernhut 2002) The new multi-stakeholder arranged global governance frameworks are encouraging businesses to adopt the role of a 'force for positive good' in society, beyond the paradigm of 'doing no harm'. (Warhurst 2003)

After the major milestone "World Summit" in Rio in 1992, the sustainability agenda and its derivative concepts became more popular and visible. As in many new developments , major concepts of sustainability have no single definition. Neither the exact meaning of the term corporate social responsibility (CSR) nor the related terms e.g. corporate responsibility (CR) or corporate sustainability (CS) have still been agreed upon. (Marrewijk 2003; Panapanaan et al. 2003.) The European Commission (2001) defines CSR so that it incorporates social, environmental and economical aspects: "[CSR is] a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis." (European Commission 2001, 4.)

The logistics and transportation sector plays a positive role in the economic development of societies, spreading opportunity and acting as a backbone for global development and communication, as well as contributing to communities.

However, this part furthermore faces some strong appearing challenges to its perceived communal responsibilities. The core business of this industry's direct relation with major sustainability issues such as environmental impact, traffic congestion, energy waste, safety and security, and sustainable infrastructure, puts logistics firms under the careful inspection of various stakeholders. Parts of the sector, such as post and transport, have mass consumer markets, however this paper will mainly discuss the actions and responses of those big players with big business and institutional markets.

Although they all (mainly) compete in the same market, the companies under investigation in this paper all have different levels of reaction to CSR issues and reporting. UPS, identified as the most active of the three, not only talks about CSR and sustainability issues in its annual ...