Jun 21: Chamber of Commerce Breakfast at the Shack

Kia ora koutou,

We’re looking forward to Thursday’s Chamber Breakfast at The Shack. 

We hope you’ll join us to learn a bit more about implementing CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) into your business.

Yes that phrase does sound a bit… ‘corporate’, so we like to think of it more as, ‘Small Business Responsibility‘.

Our community is made up of small, mostly locally owned businesses.

Taking this into consideration, we have a little bit more responsibility on our shoulders as both Whaingaroa Raglan residents and business owners, to care for our growing town in the best way we can.

This is where the elements of strong CSR/Small Business Responsibility practices come into play.

This month we’re encouraging you to look at the environmental stewardship and sustainable development aspects of CSR, as well as your business to business relations and community involvement.

You can read more about Thursday’s breakfast and CSR below, but before you do, remember to RSVP!

The team from Xtreme Zero Waste will be joining us to talk about business waste and what support and options are available to help your business minimise waste and costs.

We’ll also get an update on Plastic Bag Free Raglan
and what the next phase of the ‘Plastic Free Raglan’ project is.

This will be followed by a short discussion and overview of the Business Focus Group for the Raglan Naturally Community Plan. We’ll give you a brief rundown of Raglan Naturally and where the current revitalisation process is at, and invite you to join the Business Focus Group.

Okay, so what exactly is Corporate Social Responsibility? 
… that could take a while to explain, but in a nutshell…“Social responsibility (is the) responsibility of an organisation for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society and the environment through transparent and ethical behaviour that is consistent with sustainable development and the welfare of society; takes into account the expectations of stakeholders; is in compliance with applicable law and consistent with international norms of behaviour; and is integrated throughout the organisation.” Working definition, ISO 26000 Working Group on Social Responsibility, Sydney, February 2007In a small community made up of locally owned businesses like our own, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’, is probably better understood as ‘Small Business Responsibility’.

Social responsibility goes beyond meeting basic legal and ethical standards, it includes functioning as a strong community citizen that shows concern for the public and going ‘beyond law’ with your commitments and activities in regards to: business ethics, health and safety, environmental stewardship, human rights, sustainable development, workplace conditions (including health, safety, hours of work, wages), business to business relations, community involvement, development and investment, involvement of and respect for diverse cultures and disadvantaged peoples, philanthropy and employee volunteering, customer satisfaction, anti-corruption, accountability, transparency and performance reporting, supplier relations, etc.

Ensuring sustainable, balanced development as a business is one of our greatest challenges.

Businesses play a key role in society, and the needs of current and future generations cannot be met unless there is mutual respect for natural systems and standards that protect social and environmental values.

The discussion around Corporate Social Responsibility is vast, but we hope you’ll join us at The Shack this Thursday 21 June, to gain a small insight into CSR and be further inspired to start implementing CSR practices into your business.