Service Offerings: CSR Assessment and Policy Development

Assessment & Policy Development

Sample Clients

BT, ChevronTexaco, Gateway, Kraft, Lucent, Pfizer, McDonald's, Novartis, Rio Tinto, SAP, Shell, Visteon

BSR helps companies evaluate their CSR policies and performance against critical measures including global CSR standards, leadership practices and industry benchmarks, and guides companies through the process of developing appropriate CSR policies in light of these assessments.

CSR Assessment

BSR assists companies in the analysis and evaluation of their existing CSR policies, programs and practices. BSR’s engagements in this area typically involve one or both of the following steps:

  • Current Performance -- Helping companies develop an overview of their overall CSR activities and structure, as well as policies and practices on specific CSR issues such as community engagement, environment, ethics, governance and accountability, human rights, marketplace and workplace practices.
  • Gap Analysis -- Helping companies examine and evaluate their CSR policies and practices against existing company standards, key performance indicators, leading external CSR standards, leadership practices, industry practices or trends and stakeholder perceptions.

Policy Development

BSR provides guidance to companies as they develop, update and enhance company CSR policies. This typically involves benchmarking company policies against relevant examples, and assisting companies in drafting new policy language or modifying existing policy language. This includes policies in:

  • All major CSR issue areas, e.g., community engagement, environment, ethics, governance and accountability, human rights, marketplace and workplace practices.
  • Specific topic areas of particular relevance to the company, e.g., child labor, hazardous substances, HIV/AIDS, store siting, water use, and others.

Sample Projects

The following are illustrative examples of BSR consulting projects in the area of CSR Assessment and Policy Development:

CSR Assessment

    • BSR engaged in an extensive CSR assessment, gap analysis and prioritization project to help this mining company position itself for leadership by identifying the most important CSR-related work for the company and the industry over the next three, five and ten years. Areas of focus included human rights, sustainable community development, post-mine closure processes, impact on indigenous peoples, safety, and environmental conservation and enhancement.
    • BSR conducted a large-scale CSR assessment process to help this leading food retailer improve its CSR policies and practices to better address stakeholder concerns. The project involved interviews with 20 senior executives, an analysis of CSR performance against global standards and recommendations for improvements.
    • BSR engaged in comprehensive gap analysis to help this pharmaceutical company better understand how well its current policies and codes addressed the company's overall CSR goals and strategies. The gap analysis involved a review of company policies and practices against various voluntary CSR standards, and an evaluation of how the policies supported the company’s public commitments to key standards.
    • BSR led a comprehensive CSR assessment process to help this global technology company better understand stakeholders' views of the company's ethical, social, environmental performance. The project involved extensive interviews with internal staff and approximately 20 external stakeholders representing customers, partners, government agencies, NGOs and investors, resulting in recommendations on next steps for CSR policy development.
    • BSR has conducted an annual social compliance benchmarking, survey and summary report for the last two years for 20 leading apparel, consumer products, food, footwear and toy companies to help them learn about best practices, identify areas of common concern as well as continuing challenges.

Policy Development

  • BSR helped this global communications company develop a baseline understanding of its CSR performance, and identify potential strategic changes by conducting an evaluation of key company policies and practices. This came from in-depth analysis of potential improvements in the areas of corporate governance, accountability, business ethics, human resource and workplace issues, human rights, community impact and the environment.
  • BSR provided strategic counsel and participated on a cross-functional team to help this global automobile manufacturer draft the company's human rights code of conduct, develop a monitoring system and design training materials for suppliers.
  • BSR researched and analyzed information on CSR-related legal and regulatory standards to help this global automobile manufacturer evaluate its policies and practices to comply with changing requirements for CSR reporting and corporate governance in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
  • BSR worked closely with this global pharmaceutical company to help it refine its human rights policy and develop compliance processes. Project research included benchmarking of other corporate human rights policies, an analysis of pharmaceutical-related labor issues in the supply chain, as well as the development of a revised human rights policy and training program.