Corporate social responsibility – a global heatmap

Thursday, June 09, 2011 | Posted by: Fiona Cullinan
Categories: China , India, Thought leadership | Tags: business, India, statistics, China, report, survey, IBR, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, CSR, ethics, map, figures, heatmap

We’ve mapped the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity undertaken in the past year by businesses around the globe (darker colours show the most active). There are significant variations by region, as well as some surprises by country. Read on for a breakdown of the findings…

The chart comes from Grant Thornton International’s latest report, which asks what is driving CSR, how it is/should be reported and what initiatives have been launched.

The full report is available for download: Corporate social responsibility: the power of perception. 

The global heatmap shows where CSR activity has been high, medium and low around the world in the past 12 months. It suggests which economies demonstrate the strongest, as well as the least, overall commitment to socially responsible initiatives. Click here for a larger version

Leaders
Businesses in northern Europe – encompassing Finland, Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom – and Africa, together with North America and the Asia-Pacific region, are leading the way in initiating socially responsible practices.

Laggers
However, much of mainland Europe – especially France, Germany, Belgium and Italy – and some of the fastest growing economies in the world, such as Brazil, India, Russia and Turkey, are lagging behind on this measure.

Asia’s CSR divide
There was a similar split in the Asia-Pacific region, where businesses in the Philippines, Thailand, mainland China, New Zealand and Australia all showed significant CSR activity in the past year, compared with their peers in India, Japan and Vietnam, where activity was much lower.

Mainland China was the only BRIC economy in which businesses initiated high levels of socially responsible practices. Brazil, Russia and India demonstrated only low levels of CSR activity.

Competitive advantage or altruism?
It perhaps comes as no surprise that strategic rather than altruistic corporate social responsibility leads the way, with a competitive advantage to be gained by businesses that can demonstrate leadership towards socially responsible practices.

Figures show that only 36% of businesses globally were motivated to move to more ethical practices by a desire to ‘save the planet’, down from 40% in 2008. Meanwhile, more than half (56%) cited public attitudes/brand building and recruitment/retention of staff as the key drivers (alongside cost management) this year.

CSR reporting
However, while social responsibility practice benefits business, relatively few (25%) of companies globally currently report on their sustainability and CSR activity – although the practice is more widespread in emerging economies. Meanwhile, businesses are divided as to whether integrating the reporting of non-financials, such as CSR, with financials should be regarded as best practice.

Download the report
For further information and analysis, the full CSR report is available for download: Corporate social responsibility: the power of perception.

The report takes findings from the 2011 Grant Thornton International Business Report, which surveyed more than 11,000 businesses across 39 economies.

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