Shift Happens! 5 Global Trends That Made CSR Mainstream in Business and Why This Info Should Be a Tool In Your Management Toolbox.

In our mission to make CSR easy, we want to provide some context for how CSR became a mainstream business practice. To do so, in this episode we’ll look back at recent history to share a series of events that have taken place and made CSR mainstream in business.

1. Significant changes in the world

• World population growth
• Food-energy-water nexus: the increase in population will drive an enormous need for more food, energy and water. 
• A growing middle class now has more disposable income to buy more things.
• We’ve become a disposable economy.

2. Companies’ offerings have shifted from offerings that were primarily tangible – things that were manufactured or produced, like steel or even printed materials to more intangible items like software-based companies and experiences.

3. The internet has made it possible for anyone to look up anything about a company and companies are expected to be more transparent.

• Like no other time in history, information is available 24/7/365.
• At any given time, within minutes, a company’s reputation can be significantly harmed by accurate, and even inaccurate, information.
• For these reasons and many more, companies are expected to provide the information that we as consumers or citizens want, when we want it, accessible in a place that we can easily find it, at any time.
• This is why it’s imperative for a company’s reputation to be transparent.

4. 5 generations exist together in the workplace, affecting employees and culture

• Millennials and Gen Z’s are raising the bar on expectations for transparency and action. 

5. Organizations have been developed to help consumers, employees and even investors understand the social and environmental information that companies are reporting.

• UN Sustainable Development Goals
• GRI – The Global Reporting Initiative
• DJSI - the Dow Jones Sustainability Index
• SASB- the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board

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