We have now well and truly entered the awards season and the next couple of months are going to see a flurry of activity as companies, community groups and individuals form alliances to prepare their submissions.
It is not just the obvious awards either as there is a lot of internal impact from the local awards given to businesses for their work at the local office level as there is to the national and international awards. There is a good website at http://www.environmentawards.net/sage which provides a very comprehensive searchable database of over 300 awards. There is also a link to the accreditation website that is helpful in understanding the processes and which ones are feeder schemes to European award schemes – potentially entry to two awards for the price of one submission.
The consultation on the OFR is also running and the challenge is keeping the internal systems flexible enough to accommodate the end result –whether it is simply the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive, the OFR re-branded or potentially a hybrid between the two. The concern is that having a settled way forward and having built such a consensus over the last few years we will be back in the negotiation mode for another year and so progress is minimal. It really is up to all of us to respond to the consultation and at the same time have in mind that the long promised communication from the EU on CSR is also potentially going to hit our in box in March. It is unlikely to impact on the OFR discussions but if it calls for more than a business dialogue then if systems need changing do it once rather than twice.
FairTrade fortnight is coming up next month (starts March 6) as is International Womens Day on 8 March. Both give the opportunity to CSR practitioners to promote internal programmes to or for those groups of stakeholders. While traditionally fair-trade tea and coffee is the bedrock, the roll out of fair-trade wine is a much easier process. Blind tastings are more popular for a start and it gets peoples attention quickly. On International Women’s day the work of the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence, of which we are part, is something that will be featured. The cost to business is significant and domestic violence is no respecter of class or creed. There is a lot that can be done to support employees and their families and it has generated a very healthy debate internally about the role of the employer in this area.
Mike Kelly is head of CSR at KPMG LLP (UK). He writes The Practitioner column every month, previewing the key events.
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