Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)

Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) is a global organization that helps member companies achieve [Page 236]success in ways that respect ethical values, people, communities, and the environment. Its mission is to create a just and sustainable world by working with companies to promote more responsible business practices, innovation, and collaboration.

BSR began in 1992 as an association of approximately 50 companies dedicated to helping businesses be both commercially successful and socially responsible. Many of these founding companies were small and medium-sized businesses—such as Ben and Jerry's, Patagonia, and Tom's of Maine—which themselves strongly believed in and pursued responsible business practices.

During the past years, corporations are becoming more aware that to compete successfully, they need to develop responsible business policies and practices and make them an integral part of their mission, values, strategy, and operations. Along with this increasing importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the world has witnessed the growth of a network of national organizations that promote awareness of CSR and provide business leaders with tools and opportunities to collaborate with innovative managers across all industries, geographies, and functions. BSR, as part of this network, provides information, tools, training, and advisory services to make CSR an integral part of business operations and strategies.

BSR helps address a broad spectrum of CSR issues: business ethics, community investment, environment, governance and accountability, human rights, marketplace, mission, vision, values, and workplace.

To fulfill its mission, BSR works mainly in four specific areas. First, it provides advisory services on matters such as CSR reporting and implementation, stakeholder engagement, working groups, supply chain management, CSR strategy and structure, and CSR assessment and policy development. Second, BSR sponsors a series of conferences, including the BSR Annual Conference, which has become the largest forum for CSR practitioners, bringing together over 1,000 business leaders from more than 40 countries and their colleagues in the independent and public sectors. In the course of 4 days, e xecutives, economists, analysts, academics, nongovernmental organizations, and public policy leaders can participate in training sessions and instructive breakout sessions covering business action in the areas of economic development, governance and accountability, human rights, and the integration of CSR into core operations. Third, BSR provides a collection of resources on responsible business practices, mainly online tools and guidelines. Fourth and finally, its store contains a number of books and reports that enhance the knowledge and promotion of CSR.

In addition, being a nonprofit organization, BSR promotes cross-sector collaboration and contributes to global efforts to advance the field of CSR: BSR connects its members to a global network of business and industry peers, partners, stakeholder groups, and thought leaders, mainly because cross-sector dialogue and collaboration have become the essential ingredients of a successful CSR strategy. Working in partnership with these groups, BSR is expanding its capacity to serve its members' global business needs and to achieve the mission of the BSR Education Fund. BSR has established formal partnerships with Global Compact, Ethos Institute (Brazil), CSR Europe (Belgium), MAALA (Israel), Business in the Community (United Kingdom), and Acción Empresarial (Chile). BSR is also a founding member of EMPRESA, the Forum on Business and Social Responsibility in the Americas. BSR has established additional links with other business organizations with similar interests in the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

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