orporate social responsibility (known as CSR) is a set of actions that are optionally taken by organizations and businesses to function in a socially
economically, and environmentally responsible mode. CSR in business transcends the conventional increased attention only on making a profit. The corporate social responsibility idea meditates on the wider effect an organization has on society and the world in general.
Furthermore, the CSR strategy involves an extensive range of actions, regimentations, and programs that have the common goal of assisting the prosperity of the stakeholders, environment, and communities.
CSR Benefits for the Planet
The most significant reason companies take CSR initiatives is the potential outcome for the environment and society. Big businesses own the key to the world's positive or negative outcomes: they can either be involved in protecting the people and environment or stay out and watch everything getting worse.
Companies have all the assets, scale, and control to engage in ecological and social matters, building a better world. CSR actions help community growth by funding education, healthcare, and infrastructure, boosting the standards of living and facility access for local citizens.
In addition, the corporate social responsibility movements nurture environmental preservation by encouraging sustainable activities and decreasing pollution. In this context, CSR plays a pioneering part in developing a fairer, flourishing, and sustainable planet by strongly confronting a broad range of pressing societal and environmental problems.
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CSR Benefits for the Communities
Philanthropy engagement is an essential element of corporate social responsibility and companies can make an important change to people’s existence by participating in these causes. By vigorously being involved in charity and donating to charitable issues, organizations prove their involvement to obtain a positive outcome for society and the environment.
An example of CSR action was taken by Great Place to Work in partnership with the disability non-profit organization WALK. They strongly supported the idea that everyone who wishes to work should have the right to have a profession and build a career, especially those with cerebral incapacities.
Their goal is to help these individuals achieve their vocation and professional desires by supporting them in understanding their capacity, accessing chances, and growing their natural skills.
Helping this kind of critical issue by supporting non-profits, big corporations transmit a significant message to all the prospective stakeholders, not just a selected few, that they are committed to making a positive change.
Walmart - Retail Store
Walmart represents one of the largest retailers in the world and has grown into a global powerhouse with a wide reach of millions of customers and suppliers around the globe. Because the retail industry is evolving gradually, the responsibility should be growing and businesses such as Walmart should contribute in a positive way to the environment despite their profit margins.
Corporate social responsibility also known as CSR has become a standard for modern business practices and represents the dedication of companies to operating ethically, sustainably, and in ways that can have a good impact on society.
The Walmart approach to CSR has many sides including environmental sustainability and social responsibility along with CSR in business practices. The retailer has made significant progress in various areas such as renewable energy, waste reduction, and community support. But their CSR advancements have faced also some challenges including criticism over the labor practices and their environmental impact.
Walmart CSR Strategy
Walmart represents a multinational retail corporation that was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton in Rogers, Arkansas. The retailer operates various numbers hypermarkets and also discounted grocery stores, and has more than 2.2 million employees around the world with 1.5 million of those coming from the U.S., making it the biggest employer in the country.
Walmart's purpose according to its ESG report is “to save people money and help [stakeholders] live better… providing convenient access to high-quality, affordable food and other essential products and services to millions of people each week”. This goal mirrors Walmart's CSR strategy because it spins around Everyday and also around convenience shopping for their customers.
One of their objectives that are included in the ESG report is “making every day easier for busy families” which is claiming to be the perfect alternative for customers to have various products and services at good prices and also in a short time. Another goal is to push the development among its employees by offering some inclusive opportunities and training that are goal-oriented to improve the innovation process while operating sustainably with discipline and strategic CSR in business practices.
Walmart managed to align its corporate goals and purposes with socially responsible practices that aim to improve economic opportunities while understanding the environmental and social sustainability view of its products and the environmental and social sustainability of those products. So, their CSR approach has three initiatives: the environment, social issues, and socially responsible governance.
According to the CSR model which has four parts, it refers to economic, social legal, and philanthropic CSR. The Walmart company for the economic part, has contributed to the community by helping the hospitals for children, educational programs as well as charities.
Legal responsibility is all about the way an organization operates according to a set of laws and regulations provided by the local, state, and federal governments. To comply with those regulations, Walmart has operated successfully in a legal way.
Ethical responsibilities refer to the fairness and justice that consumers, shareholders, and also employees consider acceptable. In the past, the Walmart retailer had various ethical issues because the company determined the shutdown for many businesses. Despite the various problems that Walmart had caused for the local businesses, they indeed are not responsible in any way for the failure of those companies.
However, it seems that the retailer is succeeding in the economic and philanthropic sections of the model because their environmental awareness campaigns were for example determined since those environmental issues were becoming very common in the United States.
The Walmart company has the responsibility to ensure that its operations do not have an impact on the environment. Also, the retailer must come up with ways to eliminate the inconveniences that consumers and the public in general are facing. For example, the traffic issue can be reduced significantly if Walmart employs people to only direct traffic or can increase the size of the parking lot to have a bigger space for customers.
However, the retail company has no responsibility to the local merchants about their continuity as a business. The biggest concern for them is to reach the maximum profits and sales volumes. From a wider point of view, Walmart needs to pay increased attention to those customers who come and make a purchase from their stores to be able to ensure the best purchasing experience.
Due to their low-cost products and services along with the various corporate social responsibility initiatives, the retailer managed to force out small businesses from the market while building a strong brand culture and identity to stand out from the competition. Most of the customers are choosing Walmart stores because they offer a nicer experience at the same cost as the small merchants.
Key Components of Walmart's CSR Strategy
Environmental Sustainability
Environmental sustainability represents a crucial aspect of Walmart's CSR strategy that manages to reflect Walmart's commitment to reducing its ecological footprint while promoting various sustainable practices. Let’s review some of the elements:
- Sustainable Sourcing - Walmart is committed to sourcing those products that are produced sustainably, including fish and seafood from various sustainable fisheries, palm oil that is responsibly collected also cotton grown with a reduced amount of pesticide use. For the transparency of the supply chain, the retailer is working to make sure that all of their suppliers follow the environmental standards.
- Energy efficiency - the goal for the retailer is to push all of their global operations to 100% renewable energy, including the solar and wind energy initiatives. Also, the company has managed to make significant investments in some technologies that are energy-efficient like LED lighting and HVAC systems to minimize as much as possible the energy consumption.
- Waste reduction - the retailer has exposed some bold goals to achieve in the future zero waste operations with a target of waste reduction metrics, such as recycling initiatives and reduced food waste. Regarding the packaging, they aim to make some improvements and focus on the optimization of product packaging along with using recyclable materials.
- Transportation and Logistics - for sustainable transportation Walmart tries to improve it by implementing more vehicles that are fuel-efficient while optimizing constantly the delivery routes to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. However, for collaborative shipping, the retailer is working with various suppliers to be able to consolidate all of the shipments and also reduce the number of trips that can have an impact on the overall carbon footprint.
- Climate action - the retailer managed to set some targets that are science-based to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all of their operations along with the supply chain. They also have a project called “The Gigaton Project” that claims to encourage all suppliers to reduce emissions by a billion metric tons by 2030. To bring help in this project, Walmart is providing resources and tools for suppliers.
- Community Engagement and Education - the retail company Walmart is engaging with local communities to support and promote environmental awareness and sustainability initiatives. To support conservation efforts, Walmart is always supporting those initiatives that have the goal of protecting natural resources and biodiversity and is associated with various organizations that are focused on conservation.
- Reporting and Accountability - Walmart publishes sustainability reports that outline its progress toward the highest environmental goals to ensure transparency for its stakeholders. Also, the company is often working with third-party organizations to evaluate sustainability initiatives.
Walmart towards a sustainable future
The Walmart CSR strategy reflects the expectations for global corporations to have a focus on profits while contributing to a more sustainable world. Because of their dedication to waste reduction, renewable energy, and community support, the retail store named Walmart had significant progress in addressing some important challenges about the environment.
Although Walmart had important achievements its journey is just at the beginning and they are waiting for more challenges like labor practices and environmental impact which require continuous improvement.
In general, Walmart managed to demonstrate the fact that even large corporations can have a positive impact and create a positive change if they are willing to align their operations with social goods. The retailer must remain committed to its initial goals because it can play an important role in shaping a more sustainable future.
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