- Ensuring that corporate social responsibility standards are respected throughout
supply chains - Improving the extent and quality of verification
- Increasing the volume of socially responsible investment
While the Green Paper aimed to stimulate debate on new ways of promoting cor-
porate social responsibility (para 93), it does notsuggest that the outcome must be
increased legislation. However, this may indeed be an outcome in some Member
States. France became the first EU country to react to the Green Paper through legis-
lation with the introduction of mandatory reporting in February 2002. As well as in-
formation on environmental impacts, reports must include information on how they
cooperate with trade unions, civil society, neighborhood communities, and non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) (www.environnement.gouv.fr).
(b) Guidelines. In contrast to the scarcity of mandatory reporting requirements
there is a plethora of guidelines or voluntary standards on social and ethical issues.
Exhibit 23.3 above lists some of these guidelines or standards and gives a web ad-
dress for further information.
A report for the European Commission’s Directorate General (EC DG) on Em-
ployment and Social Affairs prepared by AccountAbility^14 groups the guidelines or
standards into four groups: aspirational principles and codes of practice (i.e., those
that lack an external audit mechanism); guidelines for management systems and cer-
tification schemes; rating indices typically used by socially responsible investment
agencies; and accountability and reporting frameworks. Examples in each category,
together with information on the level of involvement of various stakeholders, are
shown in Exhibit 23.4.
The AccountAbility 1000 (AA1000) framework^15 differs from other guidelines in
that its focus is on the processesof reporting rather than on whatshould be reported.
Two particularly important parts of this process are the involvement of stakeholders
and governance structures. Robust processes involving stakeholders are important if
accountability to stakeholders is to be achieved. Sound governance structures are im-
portant to ensure that stakeholders are heard, that responsibilities are clear, and that
social and ethical issues are included in strategic planning and day-to-day decision
making.^16 AA1000 is described as an “integrating” guideline and the framework sets
out the extent to which the key stages of the process model (stakeholder engagement,
planning, accounting, auditing and reporting, and embedding) are incorporated into
other social and ethical standards. Other surveys of standards and guidelines on cor-
porate social reporting can be found in Exhibit 23.5.
Perhaps the best-known guidelines on social reporting are the GRI guidelines.^17
23 • 8 CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL REPORTING(^14) Forstater et al., 2002.
(^15) AccountAbility, 1999.
(^16) Adams, 2002a.
(^17) Global Reporting Initiative, 2000.