6. Communication of CSR

Without adequate credibility of the company, i.e. the contention for trust and acceptance among its stakeholders, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can neither be sustainably implemented nor communicated in a way that brings the potentials of responsible corporate management to bear.

The term Public Relations (PR) refers to the management of information and communication processes between a company and its internal and external stakeholders (sections of the public). Press and media relations are a widely used, but only one of many diverse fields of action which integrated PR can have an internal and external effect on. However, if PR in connection with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is limited purely to media effects, then a company can be accused of one-sided and noncredible communication. The communication of CSR is associated with a high risk of putting the credibility of corporate responsibility on the line and to use PR solely for "greenwashing".

In contrast to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the communication and promotion tool sponsoring is based on a contractual agreement governing the sponsor's performances and the recipient's services in return. However, as soon as sponsoring is used to promote projects in the form of public sponsoring, it is considered a CSR commitment, similar to corporate sponsoring. But CSR is generally misunderstood if sponsoring is communicated indiscriminately as CSR, while the company's core business remains unaffected by a socially and ecologically focused subsistence strategy.

A corporate concept (mission statement) is the action-oriented formulation of vision, goals and central values of a company. It conveys a trend-setting and jointly supported vision of the future about the company, while at the same time credibly justifying it. Companies which are integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into their mission statement are making corporate responsibility a top priority. A mission statement can communicate easy-to-understand and strictly binding CSR guidelines opposite employees, customers, business partners and other stakeholders.

A code of conduct and ethics is a voluntary self-commitment of companies. It serves as orientation guideline for the ethical management and correct performance of activities of all employees in the business routine. With respect to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a code of conduct and ethics is suitable to make the employees of the company aware of the implications their individual integrity and "co-responsibility" has on the entire (institutional) corporate level. A code can be a permanently binding tool to communicate CSR internally and to integrate it comprehensively among the actors in the company. Applied to industries and professions, codes are intended to promote essential professional basics of job-related actions and increase the public perception of trust and acceptance.

The goal of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is to develop globally standardised guidelines for reporting sustainability and CSR topics. As a multi-stakeholder initiative, the GRI is a pool of actors from government, industry and society and has developed the GRI guidelines for sustainability reporting as a participative procedure. The use of the GRI guidelines for reporting is intended to allow a comparative illustration of the economic, ecological and social performances of companies by means of 79 indicators (benchmarking). Regular reporting based on GRI also allows the reconstruction of in-house CSR developments during the chronological sequence of the reporting period.

CSR and sustainability reporting comprises the determination, reporting and publishing of the company's performances with respect to its sustainable development goals. Yet the majority of CSR actions are limited in their effect unless they are fully supported by everyone in the company. Reporting about CSR and sustainability is more than simply a communication tool "to the outside" and reporting duty about performance indicators "from above". Only if all employees of a company understand the significance of CSR, responsibility is no longer at risk of being given away. The inclusion of the employees as early as possible in the development process of a CSR report generates indentification and innovation potentials and is the starting point for valuable impulses for the corporate sustainability development.

The public perception of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of a company can be strongly influenced and controlled on the internet as a result of the evaluation by communities. With Web 2.0, information about companies is no longer only determined by these companies themselves. Internet users such as customers, consumers or institutionalised stakeholders are effectively using social media platforms, forums and blogs to publish information, opinions and evaluations about corporate activities, brands and products. In doing so, the power of internet users is mainly in the high local as well as global degree of networking.

Therefore, a growing number of companies are specifically expanding their marketing and communication strategy with Web 2.0. In the same way as the mass of non-commercial users, they are networking to form opinions, maintain relationships and for advertising purposes or CSR campaigns on constantly growing platforms like Facebook which has several hundred million members alone. Some "CSR 2.0 players" are using own CSR platforms and find or network their CSR reporting with social media fans, comrades-in-arms and multipliers on Web 2.0. However, companies have become more vulnerable because critics and counter-campaigns are capable of mobilising a high number of stakeholders very quickly.

Stakeholders are now using the criticism of deficient CSR on Web 2.0 so effectively, that even global company groups equipped with corresponding legal resources and communication budgets can suffer a substantial blow to their image. The pressure from a critical mass of consumers on Web 2.0 can ultimately lead to change processes toward CSR. But in many cases, the strategic actions of corporate managers are preceded by inadequate knowledge on how to handle criticism in the era of social media. By then, the brand image has already been damaged permanently.

A company visit to discuss the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) allows participants to gain practical insight into implemented corporate responsibility. "Eye-to-eye" discussions with employees and managers on site in a company make it possible for visitors (stakeholders) to experience valuable observations with CSR directly and they can be conveyed in a particularly credible manner. As well, the presentation of CSR can serve as communication tool for the companies visited. Employees of the company can participate in the preparation and conduct of a CSR company visit and it can additionally be reported on the company's website on the internet or the regional and industry-related press can be informed about it.