Business is all about the bottom line, but before steamrollering ahead without thinking
about the wider world around you it may well be worthwhile to consider how you affect others and the impact your business has on the environment.
Corporate Social Responsibility is all about understanding how your business impacts the environment, the local community, your employees and customers. It is taking a responsible stance and attitude and going beyond the minimum legal requirements "" making a choice to make a difference. What businesses may not realise is that it can be very good for the bottom line. ISO 14001 is an excellent way to make this choice.
Your Corporate Social Responsibility can cover all aspects of your business and when looking at it from an environmental point of view ISO 14001 really is an easy way to get all your environmental eggs in order. The certification essentially helps you to cut costs and streamline environmental procedures and will help you to raise your profile as an environmentally friendly company.
With ISO 14001 you are proving to your partners, customers and clients that you care about the environment helping you to build up a reputation as a responsible business which in the long term will set you apart from your competitors. This will also help you to win business as it is often favourable to suppliers that you are seen to be demonstrating responsible policies. The Co-op for instance will not work with anyone who they deem to be irresponsible when it comes to their Corporate Social Responsibility because if they do it would reflect badly on their business. For this reason, ISO 14001 can really open up doors for businesses as other companies who demonstrate responsible policies will be particularly receptive to forming a partnership.
A good reputation along with ISO 14001 leads to a wide range of other benefits for a company. It is more likely that a company would be able to recruit high quality employees who are also likely to stay at the company longer which will reduce the costs and disruption of a recruitment process and retraining and also provide a more motivated and productive workforce. It should also lead to positive press coverage, especially if part of your Corporate Social Responsibility plan is to work with the local community, and make sure that your company does not cause harm to the local area. With a built up reputation there is less chance of a major damage to it and therefore it protects a drop in sales "" customers will always choose to buy from responsible companies if possible.
Corporate Social Responsibility is really important for a company want to grow and expand and keep themselves at the top of their game. Tied in with ISO 14001 it really can make a massive difference to a company.