What is CSR Accreditation?

Good Environmental and Social Responsibility policies drive corporate change for the better. With well defined objectives and measurable targets, your CSR Accreditation will provide the foundation for steps towards running a more sustainable and ethical business.

What is CSR Accreditation?
Achieving CSR Accreditation is a visible testimony of excellence in Environmental and Social Responsibility. The accreditation helps you integrate social, environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into your business operations and strategy. A truly sustainable framework.

A CSR Accreditation can be used to:

• Become ESG Compliant – It delivers the information required for ESG (Environmental Social Governance) reporting
• Identify the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) which you may wish to support.
• Write a Social Value policy
• Reduce negative impact on climate change – Race to Zero
• Produce a Social Impact Report.
• Enrich, enable and engage employees, shareholders and stakeholders.

CSR-A run the only CSR Accreditation scheme in the UK and now operate globally
The CSR Accreditation is an effective way to benchmark what you are already doing with regard to environmental and social responsibility. It is a process in which you collate, measure and report on your organisation’s environmental and socially responsible activities. An accreditation will also provide you with a sustainable roadmap for planning future activity.

This is a fully holistic and inclusive approach that allows for all organisations – private, public and third sector and is for all sizes from sole traders to large corporations. It employs a white paper approach that promotes an organisation’s individuality.

The application process provides a simple and straightforward template where you record activity against the Social Responsibility ‘Four Pillars’ of environment, workplace, community and philanthropy. Each Social Responsibility Pillar is designed to help you impact report on areas such as energy performance, recycling, staff engagement, health and well-being, community engagement and support for local and national charities.

The establishment of a CSR Accreditation is a crucial component of a company’s competitiveness and something that should be led by the business itself. For companies, the overall aim is to achieve a positive impact on society as a whole while maximising the creation of shared value for the owners of the business, its employees, shareholders and stakeholders.

Click here for our full CSR Accreditation fees

What is CSR (Social Responsibility)?

CSR is aimed at encouraging companies to be more aware of the impact of their business on the rest of society, including their own stakeholders and the environment. Social Responsibility is an approach that contributes to sustainable development by delivering economic, social and environmental benefits for all stakeholders. It is a broad concept with many definitions and practices that addresses many and various topics such as human rights, corporate governance, health and safety, environmental effects, working conditions and contribution to economic development. The purpose of Social Responsibility is to drive change towards sustainability.’

• A social responsibility strategy can help you, the Managing Director, Business Owner or Senior Executive, set better goals, make better decisions and improve your relationships.
• A Social Responsibility programme will improve many business functions, like streamlining the hiring process, improve turnover, build a great team, as well as increase profits, sales and customer services.
• Consumers, employees, Investors, stakeholders and new recruits will not just expect to deal with responsible companies they will insist on it.

Is CSR Accreditation for our organisation?

Challenging the ‘C’ in CSR - Increasingly the term ‘corporate’ has been challenged. This is because it excludes a large number of stakeholders, specifically the third and public sectors and because ‘corporate’ does not encompass sole traders or smaller SME’s. For this reason we have defined the ‘C’ in CSR to be more inclusive. We now recommend that the ‘C’ has a wider focus of audience specific meanings.

• Corporate Social Responsibility (Private Sector) -Large Companies
• Company Social Responsibility (Private Sector) - Sole Traders and SME’s
• Community Social Responsibility (Public Sector) -Local Authorities, Schools, Hospitals etc
• Charitable Social Responsibility (Third Sector) - Charities
• Consumer Social Responsibility - Products & Services
• Citizen Social Responsibility - Training & Workshops –
• All of Us – Collective Social Responsibility

We can then surround these meanings with a Caring, Cohesive approach Common to the wider Collective.

The CSR Accreditation process

CSR Accreditation is based on an assessment of an organisations full range of CSR activity and will also require evidence that the management is committed to maintaining acceptable standards during the period of Accreditation. Accreditation under the scheme for such businesses is conditional upon:

• A successful audit of the policies and structures regarding responsible business practice that the applicant actually has in place. No matter what size your business, large or small, you submit an application based on the ‘Four Pillars of Social Responsibility ’ and the assessment guidance notes found here. Please remember that it is not essential that you deliver Social Responsibility activities in all four of the Social Responsibility pillars or everything on the associated lists, this is just a guide to help you structure your application.
• Meeting the required compliance level. All successful applications will receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze Accreditation. Any applicants that are unsuccessful will receive a gap analysis report on their application and a chance to re-apply within three months, which will incur and admin fee of £75.00 + VAT
• The applicant paying the specified Accreditation application fee.

The full report is considered by the Accreditation Panel which decides to award, defer or refuse Accreditation. Achieving accreditation endorses your organisation’s management of Social Responsibility practices. It showcases your organisation as best in class Find out more about how we can help you audit your CSR activity

CSR Consultation

Consultation services

The process of delivering a comprehensive CSR strategy should begin with an assessment of every aspect of your organisation’s socially responsible activities. At CSR-A we understand that many organisations, particularly SME’s find this prospect daunting in terms of resource and time allocation.

Our consultants work with you to define and record what you have already achieved in relation to social responsibility initiatives. We provide expert gap analysis to identify areas that need improvement and set targets for improvement against the Four Pillars of CSR.

Reporting non-financial aspects of business performance is now a vital measure of an organisation’s sustainability. It is increasingly clear that CSR auditing and benchmarking has become a vital part of company reporting and may very well, in the near future become a legal requirement.

General CSR Consultation Package

We work with management to construct effective and streamlined business solutions that build long term sustainability and profit. Responsiveness to the ethical and societal demands concerning the environment, workplace and community is critical for today’s successful organisations. Our solutions effectively address these concerns. We provide:

• Bespoke Strategy Development - Materiality-led and aligned with your corporate objectives and positioning
• Employee Engagement - Retention and recruitment strategies.
• Integration of CSR & Governance Policies - to enhance sustainable growth, reduce reputation risk, and generate value.
• Ongoing Development - capacity building and impacts communications to all stakeholders
• ESG Compliance - Demonstrate best practice, policy and strategy for ESG scoring and measurement.

Pre Accreditation Consultation Package

We provide a results driven, consultation programme to define and implement your CSR strategy by employing a structured approach that delivers required information:

• Kick-Start Meeting - Our consultant will visit your premises for an initial briefing. This meeting can take place remotely if you prefer.
• Initial Assessment - To establish where you currently are on your CSR journey and where you want to be.
• Engaging Your Team - Our consultant will engage with different departments and staff roles in order to fully understand all your activities. Typical departments are; HR, Procurement, Marketing, Operations and Executive Team.
• Composing Your CSR Accreditation Application For Submission - With support from your personnel our consultant will collate all relevant materials and author for optimal submission.
• Provide Analysis and Evaluation - To recommend actions for improvement to be discussed at your executive team meetings.

Post Accreditation Consultation Package

Post Accreditation - Your consultant will provide summary feedback from our independent assessors. This feedback is supplemented by expert analysis of your accreditation application. For clients that have used our pre-consultation package this service is provided at a reduced rate.

For more information email info@csr-accreditation.co.uk

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's)

The Four Pillars of Social Responsibility include all 17 of the SDG’s, the accreditation process helps you identify these goals and where possible include them as part of your organisations application and Social Responsibility policy.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The Four Pillars of Social Responsibility include all 17 of the SDG’s, the accreditation process helps you identify these goals and where possible include them as part of your organisations application and Social Responsibility policy.

The CSR-A Mark of Excellence – Valid for 3 years
(Although you can resubmit at anytime)

Achieving CSR Accreditation is a visible testimony of your excellence in Social Responsibility.
The Accreditation shows you have integrated Social Responsibility initiatives throughout your business operations and provides you with real competitive advantage.
Upon successful Accreditation we will supply you with an Accreditation Pack and Logo Tool-kit for display across all your brand touch-points such as printed materials, websites and vehicles.

All successful CSR Accreditation’s will be automatically entered into the International CSR Excellence Awards.