On 19 June 2013 EuCham and its guests participated together in an online conference on the topic of Corporate Responsibility organized by The Economist. A distinctive panel discussed how CSR can improve not only the world, but also the reputation and worker satisfaction of an organization or company. Ms Shannon Schuyler (Head of Corporate Sustainability, PricewaterhouseCoopers) mentioned that CSR is able to bring people and profit together, and that it is important to look how CSR can be part of business, in order to create a win win situation.
Mr Dan Bross (Senior Director of Corporate Citizenship, Microsoft) stated that if an organization wants to have a meaningful impact on the world, it is of great importance for the CSR policy to be relevant to the business. For instance, when one is providing services, a CSR policy for a large factory will not be ideal and vice versa.
Mr Andy Savitz (Author) added that CSR managers should have a long term approach, as merely giving away money (in the form of e.g. tenders) with the aim of doing good, is maybe the right thing to do, but in his eyes not part of sustainability. Mr Dan Bross responded to this by stating that if giving away money will engage people, it is worth it to do so, and as it just is the right thing to do, one should not expect anything in return.
After the conference, the attendees at the EuCham office discussed the topic and agreed that there still is a big room for improvement in the area of environmental sustainability.For many organizations, the first step towards becoming more environmentally sustainable could be becoming a user of the GREENWILL policy. Together, the users will decrease the impact on the environment and stop the drastic climate change which is happening right now. For all users who are willing to take the next step, premium services will be provided, and in this way, GREENWILL will be able to maintain itself and possibly even others in the future.