CSC Smart Business UK Edition February - Going far with CR
Going far with CR
CSC's CR 2011 report underlines dedication to build client services on good corporate citizenship
The 2011 corporate responsibility report from CSC "The Future Is Our Business" has just been published, detailing the company's progress in improving both its own CR performance and that of its clients.
CSC's CR strategy is based on two key objectives. Through ensuring sustainability, fair and ethical working practices and community support run through every part of the business it ensures clients receive a service which matches their CR aspirations. This is increasingly important as companies start to examine suppliers' CR records before deciding whom to partner with. This is not only because they want to work with businesses which share their CR convictions but they also require services to boost their own standing as a responsible corporate citizen.
CR recognition
Progress in CSC's own CR programme has now been widely recognised by organisations responsible for evaluating companies' credentials. The company's work in the community contributed to the award of Silver status in the Business In The Community (BITC) CR Index and, for the second year running, earned recognition from the FTSE4Good Index. There was also a Carbon Saver Gold Standard award to recognise energy and carbon emission reductions in CSC buildings and SAP named CSC its Sustainability Partner of the Year.
Corporate responsibility is integral to how CSC conducts business and COO, Liz Benison is the sponsor for all CR activity in the UK. She took the opportunity of welcoming the advances made during 2011 to remind all employees, clients and stakeholders that CR runs throughout the company and is integral to the services it delivers. This helps both CSC and its clients make credible CR advances and the aim for 2012, she vows, is to keep up this encouraging momentum.
"We are committed to becoming more sustainable as a company," she said. "Sustainability is very much an integral part of our business operations and our financial performance, whether through operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, employee well being, ongoing community support or investor confidence. Our efforts are laying the groundwork for future company growth, client loyalty and global sustainability."
Client opportunity
The central point for CSC is to not only have buy-in from the top, through COO Liz Benison, but to have CR running through all parts of the business, backed up by strong, ethical corporate governance. This leadership ensures the company follows a ‘triple bottom line' of financial results, environmental sustainability and supporting employees and people in the communities they serve.
Beyond the ‘triple bottom line', there are five pillars to CSC's CR programme: clients, environment, community, employees and governance. With clients, CSC focuses on co-creating strategies which help deliver customers' objectives to improve in areas such as energy and carbon reductions, waste management and water use.
Throughout a project, CSC can add insights gleaned through its own CR programmes. For example, energy and carbon emission reductions have been helped greatly by a £50m investment in CSC's data centres to make them more efficient. At the same time, the company's Aldershot HQ is on its way to hitting a target to return no waste to land fill and to hit a target to recycle 50% of all its waste across the entire company.
Community support
Beyond core business activities, there are many ways in which CSC's dedication to supporting local communities can help clients achieve CR goals.
Embracing local communities is fundamental to the approach CSC adopts for its own CR. Its Mentoring In The Community programme encourages staff to bring their business and IT skills to local schools. The company also raised £150k for The Prince's Trust during 2011 and earned a "Million Makers" award for services to charity.
Elsewhere, CSC staff working within the civil nuclear industry in Cumbria have been helping a local charity, Young Cumbria. They have built the organisation a database as well as given an outdoor pursuits building a DIY makeover through funds raised in a charity cycle ride.
In an age where the IT department looks set to have to repurpose itself, CR could well be the rallying point through which employees demonstrate new ways of adding value to their company. There are clear gains to be achieved in energy and efficiency reductions through the use of more environmentally friendly, modern data centres, particularly through the use of technologies such as virtualisation. At the same time, though, there are local community projects teams could join, or even set up, to demonstrate how a company is keen to support schools and other worthy causes.
As CSC has found, if CR is truly integrated through the fabric of a company, in every division and every role, businesses not only benefit from improving their own responsible business credentials, they are also able to offer services which are attractive for clients and deliver a point of differentiation from rivals.
The 2011 CSC CR Report "Moving Forwards Together" is available here
Learn more about CSC’s work in: Corporate responsibility