What are the different CSR professions?

Faced with increasingly urgent climate and environmental issues, CSR now holds a central place within companies in all sectors of activity. To be supported in the implementation and development of your CSR approach, it is possible to call on certain dedicated experts.

Focus on the CSR and intra-company collaboration professions.

 

What is CSR?

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is defined by the European Commission as follows: “a concept that refers to the voluntary integration by companies of social and environmental concerns into their business activities and their relations with their stakeholders”.

In other words, it is all the actions deployed by a company to contribute to meeting the challenges of sustainable development (societal, economic and environmental issues).

For the company, implementing a CSR approach has many advantages, such as:

• Enhance its brand image with its customers and stakeholders;
• Strengthen employee engagement;
• Improve the well-being at work and the operational efficiency of the teams;
• Strengthen its competitive advantage;
• Reduce operating costs through water and energy savings;
• Positioning itself as a player in the ecological transition and the protection of the environment and biodiversity;
• Strengthen the reputation of your company;
• Adopt a circular economy model;
• Limit the company’s carbon footprint;

• …

The main CSR principles

It is the ISO 26000 standard that defines an international standard, with 7 main CSR principles, which are as follows:

1. Demonstrate accountability to society and be accountable for its impacts on society, the environment and the economy.
2. Demonstrate transparency in decisions and activities by communicating on its actions and CSR policy.
3. Ethical behaviour, based on honesty, fairness and integrity.
4. Guarantee respect for the interests of stakeholders (suppliers, customers, partners, employees, etc.) and respond to them.
5. To guarantee compliance with the principle of legality and to comply with all applicable regulatory requirements.
6. Ensure compliance with international standards of behaviour.
7. Ensuring respect for human rights.

Here are now some examples of CSR actions that a company can implement:

• Choose service providers with ethical and social values;
• Engaging local partners to support the local economy;
• Buy local and use short circuits;
• To make responsible purchases from eco-friendly brands;
• Improve waste management and reduce waste production;
• Improve waste recycling;
• Implement actions to improve well-being at work (team building events, sports activities, equal pay for men and women, implementation of teleworking, creation of comfortable workspaces, etc.);
• Enforce the rules of labour, safety, health and hygiene law throughout the production and distribution chain;
• Reduce the environmental impact of the supply chain;
• Install ecological facilities (vegetable garden, beehives, etc.);
• Reduce the energy consumption of its premises;
• …

 

What are the different CSR professions?

To help the company implement a CSR policy and integrate this initiative into a continuous improvement process, several actors can intervene.

Here is an overview of the main CSR professions:

• The CSR Strategic Consultant;
• The sustainable development project manager;
• The CSR auditor;
• The CSR manager ;
• The CSR interim manager;
• The responsible purchasing officer ;
• The sustainable product manager;
• The climate project manager;
• The CSR Director;
• The waste treatment engineer;
• The consultant Green;
• The energy advisor;
• The responsible consumer marketing project manager ;
• The CSR project manager;
• The Director of Sustainable Development;
• …

 

What are the missions of a CSR manager?

Many companies today work with a CSR manager internally. This employee fulfills several key missions, such as:

• Define a CSR action plan with the main orientations of the company’s sustainable development strategy;
• Identify the levers for action and priority issues;
• Manage the implementation of these actions in collaboration with the company’s various departments;
• Identify indicators of success (KPIs) to monitor and evaluate the impact of the actions deployed;
• Implement a responsible communication policy around CSR actions;
• Protect and enhance the company’s image;
• Develop awareness campaigns to promote the commitments made by the company and promote future actions;
• Produce reports and reports following the actions carried out;
• Ensure that actions comply with CSR regulatory constraints ;
• Respond to the needs of stakeholders;
• Carry out CSR certification procedures;
• …

The CSR manager is therefore responsible for the proper implementation of the social and environmental responsibility policy internally. He or she is responsible for defining CSR principles, steering actions, measuring their impact and promoting the sustainable development approach adopted by the company to stakeholders.

Some large companies even have a department dedicated to CSR, with a team of experts in charge of the various aspects of the CSR policy.

 

When to call on an interim manager specializing in CSR?

Implementing a CSR approach within your company is a major project, which can be very complex to manage internally.

To ensure the success of its CSR policy, the company can call on a CSR interim manager. This expert in sustainable development in companies helps organizations to activate their social and environmental transformation and guarantees the sustainability of the actions carried out, in compliance with the standards and regulations in force.

Our interim management company WAYDEN is able to mobilize an interim CSR manager as soon as possible. Operational from the moment he joins the company, this expert has a solid knowledge of CSR standards, regulations, labels and principles. Thanks to his long career of 15 to 25 years, he helps the company to deploy a rewarding, impactful and sustainable CSR policy.