CSR training session at SWETIC
Yesterday I participated in a CSR-training session at SWETIC (Swedish Association for Testing, Inspection, and Certification). SWETIC’s own presentation of the session can be found here.
After a brief introduction by Magnus Davidsson from SWETIC, Mattis Bergquist from Only R, gave some introductory remarks to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a concept.
Mattis presents CSR as a concept
After the introduction to CSR from Mattis, I presented Pfizer’s sustainability platform, as a business case for CSR. If you have followed my blog over recent years you have become fairly familiar with our work. If you have not, I recommend that you follow these links:
- Pfizer’s corporate webpage, “Doing business responsibly”
- Pfizer’s Swedish webpage, where you will find information on our sustainability initiatives (in Swedish) in three levels:
– Level 1: “Pfizer och Ansvarsfullt företagande”
– Level 2: “CSR- och miljöarbete - en central del av vårt ansvarstagande”
– Level 3: “Hållbarhetsarbete i praktiken”
You could also read my two blogposts from October 11 back in 2009. There I give general information on our CSR and environmental initiatives under the title “Pfizer and Corporate Responsibility, Part 1” and “Pfizer and Corporate Responsibility, Part 2“. Somethings have of course developed since then, but the general idea still holds true.
Mattis entered the stage again after my presentation, and he went into more details on the different standards, rules, legislative tools etc. within the field of CSR.
Different rules, standards etc on CSR
Regardless of which system a company chooses to base their CSR-program upon, management commitment is of course crucial. Johannes Ingerby from The Information Company presented tools to secure management buy-in, commitment, and focus.
CSR as an opportunity or a risk...
Johannes, who has a great deal of experience in the field, told us that unfortunately still most management teams look upon CSR as “a risk to be managed”. Hence, it is rather being controlled than being used as a strategic business objective. He nevertheless presented balanced score cards for using CSR as a strategic business measure, in addition to a control card where CSR-issues are one of many measures to follow.
Johannes Ingerby from The Information Company
We then got the opportunity to listen to Åsa Edman from the governmental procurement investigation. The investigation, which should be reported no later than June 28, 2012, will review both financial as well as political perspectives of public procurement. Within the frame of “political considerations”, both social and environmental criteria will be looked upon. Åsa then gave the word to Lisa Sennström från Miljöstyrningsrådet, MSR, (in English: The Swedish Environmental Management Council). MSR have developed several guidance documents for social and environmental criteria in public procurement. One of the areas where such criteria have been developed is for pharmaceuticals. You can read my reflections on this matter in a number of my previous blog posts. Read for instance my blog post from Sept 8 this year, and follow the links within that blog post for further details.
The training session ended with further discussions on ISO 26000, and whether or not it will be certifiable, verifiable or nothing of that kind at all… The discussion was led by Dag Sjöholm from SP who acts as chairman on “SIS‘ verifying group of ISO 26000″. Read more regarding my views on this debate in the blog post from Nov 26, 2010, and via the links within that blog post.
Thanks SWETIC for interesting discussions on several aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility!
Pfizers miljö- och ansvarsblogg kommer att ta upp aktiviteter som vi själva gör inom ramen för det vi kallar ”ansvarsfullt företagande” men som i den vardagliga debatten ofta benämns CSR. Jag som bloggar heter Bengt Mattson och arbetar som CSR- och miljöchef på Pfizer AB. 