CSR progress starts fresh cycle, index shows

In the past two years, corporate social responsibility in China has maintained a strong level of growth and reached a new high, indicating that CSR development in the country is starting a new cycle, according to a recently released index.

In the first two years of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), the average index level was about 10 percent higher than the average index level during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), according to a report released in June by the Golden Bee Corporate Social Responsibility Index.

Since 2009, China WTO Tribune, a monthly journal focusing on China’s World Trade Organization-related work established by the Ministry of Commerce, started to evaluate Golden Bee CSR reports.

“Bees are believed to be among the oldest and smartest species on earth with a living history of 137 million years. Bees collect pollen, make honey for their own use and also pollinate plants. In return, the plants provide more flowers for bees to gather pollen,” said Yin Gefei, vice-president of China WTO Tribune, as well as chief CSR expert at Golden Bee.

“This kind of harmonious coexistence is said to be the best model of sustainable development. For those beelike enterprises, which create economic benefits and also fulfill social responsibility, we call them Golden Bee enterprises,” he said.

The report found that while State-owned enterprises have maintained a leading role in CSR development, the social responsibility indexes of foreign companies and those in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan exceeded that of SOEs for the first time, with outstanding performance in strategy and governance.

“The gap between private enterprises and SOEs in CSR fulfillment in communities, government and the environment is narrowing. All kinds of companies need

to better integrate CSR practices into their corporate strategies,” Yin said.

“The top management teams should improve their understanding of the value and significance of CSR fulfillment to meet increasing demand from people for better lives, so as to further strengthen their strategic emphasis on CSR and social responsibility governance,” he said.

When it comes to different industries, the CSR practices of the power, engineering, wholesale, retail and manufacturing industries have improved greatly. The power industry took the lead in fulfilling social responsibilities to different stakeholders, the report found.

The report suggested that enterprises should place more emphasis on innovation and sustainability of CSR practices and further improve the ability to fulfill responsibility and promote competitiveness.