Organizations are responsible for the impacts of their decisions and activities on society and the environment. It is the concept of what we call Corporate Social Responsibility.
CSR represents the commitment to basic values and behavior consistent with those commitments. The CSR perspective is oriented towards three objectives - economic, social and environmental - grouped under the term “sustainability”, understood as the capacity to generate sustainable development.
Sustainable development and the social responsibility of organizations are among the most current business development and management issues.
Today, differentiation in a competitive market can come from the perception that the client and other interested parties (employees, investors, suppliers, local communities, etc.) have regarding the social and environmental achievements of organizations.
In this way, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) comes into play, understood as a competitive advantage.
But, all efforts and efforts to be a responsible company are useless if the organization does not communicate it.
The function of communicating these efforts and actions is carried out by the so-called “Sustainability Reports” or “CSR Reports”, which allow organizations to communicate their activities from the triple economic, social and environmental dimensions.
The preparation of a Sustainability Report implies making the efforts of a company much more visible with regard to social and environmental issues.
This annual report on CSR that large organizations publish regularly, is also a necessity for small and medium-sized companies and for non-profit associations.
In summary, it is about preparing a document that explains the organization's performance in the social and environmental spheres, and the impact that the productive activity it develops has on them.
They are not mandatory at the moment, by any rule, but being aware of their remarkable benefit in terms of corporate image is what is making many organizations decide to develop it. Concepts such as sustainability, ethics or social benefits are part of the values of organizations and are also appreciated by society as a whole.
It is also a good internal information instrument for the organization's own management that allows it to make decisions based on the results and reorient its policies or strengthen them.
An organization that evaluates itself and reports on the way in which it achieves its goals and objectives before its workers and the general public to whom it informs and communicates the results of its economic and social actions, constitutes an organization that incorporates transparency in its management and that gains credibility by building an image that ultimately benefits it in terms of obtaining financing and resources.
