Building Community Capacity: Assessing Corporate Sustainability Report

This report presents the outcomes of a project in which the Total Environment Centre worked with partners to develop a “toolkit” designed to enhance the ability of community sector organisations and individuals, to better influence corporate sector progress towards real ecologically and socially sustainable development.

The NSW Premier’s Forum in October 2001 identified that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is underpinned by three key components – doing business responsibly, taking leadership in the community interest, and Triple Bottom Line reporting and accountability.

At the global scale, community-based non-government organisations are having significant input to major sustainability processes.

However, in Australia the community sector has to date had only limited involvement in the development of corporate sustainability.

The Total Environment Centre (TEC) received funding from the NSW Premier’s Department to further its work enhancing community sector ability to engage with and influence this corporate change process.

The TEC (assisted by consultants Community Solutions) worked with the Australian Consumers’ Association, the NSW Labor Council and the NSW Council of Social Service, to build effective working relationships between community sector participants, interested corporate sector representatives and others.

The project provided information and sought community sector views through a number of mechanisms

• a plain English introductory project newsletter
• a discussion paper on principles for assessing corporate sustainability
• a series of community sector focus groups, involving interested participants from each of the community services, consumer and trade union sectors, and a module within a TEC ‘Green Capital’ NGO training session on interaction with the corporate sector.

Sustainability principles & descriptors

The sustainability principles and brief description of what each entails were developed as a key outcome of the Building Community Capacity: Assessing Corporate Sustainability project.

• Accountability & Transparency

  • public disclosure of social and environmental aspects of operation, together with financial reporting
  • accessibility to independent, third-party auditing of processes and performance against agreed sectoral ‘best practice’ benchmarks
  • full disclosure of any non-compliance with accepted standards
  • disclosure of methodologies and any weightings

• Community engagement

  • Actively seeking to develop open, honest and inclusive dialogue within the communities in which the business operates
  • Formation of real partnerships enabling collaboration with communities and broader stakeholders about policies and targets

• Ethics

  • ethical codes and standards transparent and accessible to all interested parties
  • ethical standards and practices adopted in relationships with all company stakeholders
  • fair and equitable in dealings with employees, customers, shareholders, supply chain partners and other key contacts
  • National Privacy Principles adhered to

• Governance

  • organisational commitment to environmental, socially and financially integrated practice, with leadership from the highest levels
  • relevant training programs for staff and performance review
  • interests of employees, customers and affected communities (the human capital) addressed concurrently with management of financial capital

• Employment practices

  • support and respect for protection of human rights in the workplace, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  • industrial relations based on mutual respect and recognition
  • avoidance of workplace discrimination in all its forms
  • avoidance of forced or child labour
  • freedom of association and a right to collective bargaining
  • rights of access to at least basic health, housing and education
  • clear strategies to minimise workplace injuries and risks to employees
  • employment practices that recognise and cater for a diverse workforce, including people with family and carer responsibilities

• Consumer relations

  • clear statements of company products and services, their scope, performance and limitations available on an equitable basis on request
  • clear and accessible complaints handling available within reasonable timeframes
  • ensuring consumers understand risk and are not encouraged to misuse debt

• Environmental protection

  • adoption of sustainability seeking behaviours in relation to policies, management systems, products, services, and other activities – clean production, waste avoidance and lifecycle analysis, and protection and restorative activities
  • monitoring and adaptive management using relevant indicators
  • support for, and implementation of the Precautionary Principle

• Social responsibility

  • demonstrated commitment to avoiding behaviour that might further the marginalisation of disadvantaged groups in communities within which the company operates
  • procedures for transparent consideration of the social impacts of key business decisions
  • monitoring and adaptive management using relevant indicators

• Financial management

  • company policies directed to total shareholder return over the medium to long-term, while maintaining short-term viability
  • current and reliable information provided to shareholders on a regular basis

• Commitment to continuous improvement

  • ongoing processes, based on an action learning and adaptive management cycle
  • moving beyond compliance to new ways of operating
  • seek to influence suppliers to adopt sustainability policies

Follow this link to download free 'Acrobat Reader from Adobe'. You will need it to open PDF files.

For further information

Contact	:	Total Environment Centre
Address	:	Level 2, 362 Kent St., Sydney NSW 2000
Phone	:	02 9299 5599
Email	:	tec@tec.org.au

WWW

:

http://www.tec.org.au