Csr And Its Impact On Sustainability - 1017 Words

Today, companies are well aware of the expectations put to them by stakeholders, investors and consumer demand, as well as governmental policies, to become more corporate socially responsible (CSR) by implementing sustainable practices and strategies. As earth’s resources are slowly being depleted, corporations are expected to be more socially and environmentally responsible. Countless corporations understand the need for CSR and claim to have sustainable strategies in place, but are the strategies real or is it a facade? What are the real intentions behind companies turning to sustainability? Is there a hidden agenda or do they have a genuine concern with the sustainability issues, stakeholder and consumer demands or are they seeking a†¦show more content†¦The KPMG International Survey provides data that indicates that sustainability reporting is going mainstream, found that among the world’s largest 250 companies, the CSR reporting rate is more or less stable at 93% (KPMG, 2013). Companies must rise to the demands for disclosure and transparency by publishing sustainability reports, but sometimes the report alone is not enough to satisfy stakeholders and that is why many companies also attach an assurance statement. Assurance statements are issued by a third-party, such as Ernst Young or KPMG, which validates, gives creditability and reliability of the information provided in the company’s reports with regards to their sustainability practices to external stakeholders. The practice of an assurance statement in sustainability reports serves as a communication mechanism as it arguably enhances the clarity and reliability of these statements (Deegan, Cooper and Shelly, 2006). The trend that I have found through researching legitimacy and sustainability are the four stakeholders driving companies to initiate sustainability practices are customers, employees, shareholders and policy makers. In 2012, Ernst Young, in cooperation with GreenBiz Group, released a report that discussed six trends that are growing in corporate sustainability and through their research and discovered customers are