Summer School at University of Geneva: CSR

It's been a whirlwind these past 2 weeks so I was unable to update at all!
Basically I was taking a summer school program at my school for an intensive course on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I can write an entire essay on the topic so I won't go into details but to be very brief. Also, there's many schools of thought please don't quote me on any of this. I am just trying to give a very general overall broad concept so people with no knowledge (aka my mother) is able to understand it a bit better CSR comes from the concept that business can no longer function with just the goal of making profit. Instead they must integrate economic, social, and environmental aspects while addressing shareholders and business expectations at the same time.

Therefore, there's a greater need for businesses to take in consideration of society and the environment in order for them to succeed in the longer run. For example, running a business without taking environmental aspects into consideration will end up in pollution damage. Though they may make profit business wise, they will come under severe criticism from other stakeholders, hurting them in the end.

 Hence businesses today try to incorporate CSR in many forms into their business plan.  For example, have you ever seen companies that promote doing charity? This is the most common form of CSR. On a more advanced level, there are companies that incorporate sustainable measures into their business plan such as IKEA selling hand made baskets from Thailand made in partnership with an NGO. Sorry these are very bad examples, I'm sure you can find much better examples with a quick Google search.

I was very blessed that our school has offered us to meet with many different agencies and companies to hear what their initiatives and work they have been doing in terms of CSR. We've gone everywhere from the UN to Nestlé to P&G, hearing amazing stories on how each organization is trying to implement CSR within its own business/organizational framework. Studying about sustainable development, it certainly has been a wonderful chance to learn more about how the concepts we've learned are being applied in the real world. It's not perfect and there's still a lot of work that needs to be done on CSR but I am hopeful about how it's going to continue bringing change into our society on many different levels

Meeting at the UN

UN guided tour

UNICEF visit

ILO visit

Nestlé visit

Final presentation session at the UN

Final reception

Final results

  

Beautiful view from atop of the UN

Groupie!

With few of our classmates, professor and coordinator. Thank you for a lovely time!