Corporate Social Responsiblity A Little More Than Greenwashing

Question: Discuss about theCorporate Social Responsiblityfor a Little More Than Greenwashing. Answer: Introduction Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that is dominant in reporting of the business. Every corporation annually prepares a report with the details of its activity and has a policy concerning CSR. It defines a relationship between a corporation that is global, governments of the countries and citizens. The CSR is defined as the duty of making decisions controlling the actions taken which safeguard and upgrade the well-being of the society in all and even keeping with their own interests. (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2008) Companies integrate concern for society and environment into its business operations and on a voluntary basis interact with the stakeholder. CSR is a helping hand for greenwashing the image of the company, saturates channels with constructive image of the companys identification papers covering the negative image. So it is very likely to agree with the statement that, some critics of CSR claim it little more than greenwashing. There are three basic principles for all the CSR activity and these principles are as follow: Sustainability Accountability Transparency Sustainability :this principle focus on the generation of the resources and its use in the future by the society and also it focus on the power which is to be taken in present to safeguard the resources upon the available in the future. Accountability: this principle of CSR recognizes that its action taken affects the external environment and further accepting the responsibility for the effect of such actions. Transparency: this principle aims at ascertaining the reports and analysis of the action and its external effect. The sustainability of the environment is a major issue all around the world these days. The degradation of the environment has gradually increased from the past few decades. Globalization and industrialization has contributed in the environmental degradation significantly. Pollution, emission of greenhouse gas, global warming, depletion of ozone layer etc are some major problems that are being faced due to the effect of globalization and industrialization. (Reinhardt, Stevins, 2016) Greenwashing is a practice that organizations follow to make organization look environmental- friendly than it actually is. Instead of minimizing the effect of the products on the environment the organizations make efforts on marketing the product as green by spending more time and money on them. The go green strategy is being adopted by the companies as a trend these days therefore green marketing and sustainability have become significant. And the organizations use the green marketing as their weapons to with stand the global market. And the misuse of this practice of green marketing by the organizations is to create a false green brand image in the consumers and the investors eye. This is all what is known as Greenwashing. (Aggarwal, Kadyan, 2014). There has been a range of criticism for CSR. There are many companies which pursue the CSR to take advantage of the consumers. They promote their reputation by advertising their CSR efforts. The criticism has five main category or groups: The very firstly, with the help of CSR related activities and the CSR efforts the organizations can build a highly positive brand image which may allow the business to show a positive image with less effort. Secondly, being different from the fact, using media and publicity as a source CSR creates an impression that the organization are related to the CSR activities. Thirdly, the CSR activities engaged in organizations sometimes contradict with their actual tendencies and practices. Fourth, the MNCs and the large organizations influence the society with their active participation in the issues of CSR. Fifth, CSR is only an effective public relations tool and an empty promises. These criticism clearly aims on claiming CSR being a little more than greenwashing. No companies are taking CSR seriously as the organizations are concerned about the social responsibility. So it is very reasonable to say that the employees, managers, owners, and investors of a company are the individuals who have driven the importance of the CSR. The CSR has become very popular all around the world. It is being implemented by the organizations as CSR policies. Many do incorporate it in their organizational structure such as the airline industry focusing on reducing the aircraft noise and emissions. There are many organizations which do not practice the CSR for benefiting the society. The organizational success depends upon the ethically integrated structure of the organization. The CSR activities and the principles of CSR explains the importance of CSR in an organization. Is the CSR a little more than greenwashing.? What is greenwashing and how has it been driven by the organizations. The criticism of CSR explains the darker side of CSR and how has it been used in the organizations to show a positive image of the organization, suppressing the negative one. It describes the principle that the organization should build up a positive contribution to the society. By CSR here we refer to the practice followed by the major companies rather than smaller ones. The go green strategy of the organizations is being followed to make the awareness about the environment friendly products of the organizations but from past few years the organizations are use it just for promoting their brand and do not seriously take steps concerning it. The CSR helps the companies to build an image that is loyal and positive to develop a personal connection with the customers. Greenwashing the companies image also using the media and advertisement as a source to cover the negative image. Competitive advantage is gained using the CSR activities by the companies causing it to be a corporate reaction to public mistrust. The CSR activities work as partnership for public and private and it gives various options where the companies in accordance with the government can regulate and even pool the resources they have, making a strategy for avoiding the regulations. It is important for a country to n develop economically, it may impact the CSR reporting. It is important to analyze the potential positive and negative impact of the political and governance system by the organizations practicing CSR. (Dudovisky, 2012) Reference Reinhardt, L, F, Stavins, N, R, 2016, corporate social responsibility, business strategy, and the environment, vol. 26, no. 2, p.p. 164-181 Springer open, 2016, international journal of corporate social responsibility, viewed on 22nd of December 2016, https://jcsr.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40991-016-0003-7 Fooks, J, G, Gilmore, B, A, Smith, E, K, Collin, J, Holden, C, Lee, K, 2011, Corporate social responsibility and access to policy elites: an analysis of Tabacoo industry documents, viewed on 21st December 2016, https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001076 Karnani, A, 2010, , the wall street journal, the case against corporate social responsibility, viewed on 22nd December 2016, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703338004575230112664504890 Ethical consumer, 2007, CSR, viewed on 22nd December 2016, https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/commentanalysis/factsvgreenwash/corporatesocialresponsibility.asp Dudovisky, J, 2012, criticism associated with corporate social responsibility(CSR), Viewed ON 22ND December 2016, https://research-methodology.net/criticism-associated-with-corporate-social-responsibility-cs Corporate watch, 2016, whats wrong with the corporate social responsibility? The argument against CSR, viewed on 22nd December 2016, https://corporatewatch.org/content/whats-wrong-corporate-social-responsibility-arguments-against-csr