Businesses should make more of an effort to have good CSR.

Hello! I would like to thank DauntlessWarrior for accepting this debate! Looking forward to your interesting case! Arguments Economic Benefits Under economic benefits, I have several sub-points. Cost Savings Marketing Tool Innovative Products Societal Benefits Similar to the economic point, I have a few sub-points for this larger heading as well. Environmental Effects Giving Back to the Local Community Helping the Global Community Become A Better Place For this round, I will talk about the economic benefits for businesses to have a practice CSR, then go into Societal Benefits in the next round. Cost Savings This point is fairly straightforward. There are many ways where companies can have good CSR while saving money at the same time. Some examples could be to reduce packaging size and increasing energy efficiency. Not only do these initiatives reduce their environmental impact, but it also allows the business to increase their profit margins. For example, GeneralMills has saved over 55 million dollars since 2005 after making numerous proactive initiatives to use renewable and efficient sources of energy. [1] GeneralMills is a great example of a company who encourages good CSR and has had major success with their amazing ideology. With a revenue of nearly 15 billion dollars in 2011, their promotion for healthy foods, ethical sourcing, and use of green energy has made them one of the leading corporations in food products. [2] As you can see, not only has GeneralMills improved their CSR reputation, but at the same time, they saved millions of dollars. GeneralMills is just one example of a business that has become extremely successful through their CSR initiatives. There are many more, but for the sake of this debate, I will only mention the one. Marketing ToolA businesses CSR efforts can also be an effective marketing tool to consumers. Often, consumers look for a business that makes ethical decisions, has little environmental impact, or help the community. Customers are more attracted to responsible companies that have a good reputation. Most often the products of these companies are higher quality since the business is more focused on customer satisfactino rather than making as much profit as possible. A great example of a business that uses their CSR to promote their products is the franchise, Tim Hortons. Being Canadian myself, I can tell firsthand that Tim Hortons is the most popular coffee in Canada. It has recently expanded internationally to the United States and several other countries. It has over 4000 locations and in 2010, Tim Hortons brought in a revenue of more than 2.5 billion dollars. [3] Tim Hortons has been named twice as the best manage company by the Canadian Magazine. [3] Tim Hortons is famous for their numerous social events and environmental efforts. Tim Hortons founded the Tim Horton Children's Foundation. Every year, they host three core programs: a summer camp, a year-round group, and a youth leadership program. On Camp Day, the largest single fundraising event, Tim Hortons raised 11 million dollars in 2012 towards providing underpriviled youth the opportunity to a unique experience that they would normally not be able to afford. [4] Tim Hortons also makes many changes to their products so that they are very environmentally friendly. In 2012, Tim Hortons made the initiative to reduce the size of their bottles. The result was a 38% reduction in the weight of the bottle and 98, 580 kg of reduced packaging material each year. [5] They have also made numerous initiative to reduce their use of paper and cardboard and in 2011-2012, they saved a total of 16.2 tonnes of cardboard. [5] As I have said before, the trends have changed so that consumers are now looking for ethically, socially, and environmentally responsible companies. Tim Hortons markets heavily using their CSR efforts and this has made the public aware of the amazing things they are doing, therefore attracting more consumers. If a business makes an effort to improve their CSR, in the long run, they will be able to profit more from more loyal consumers and the business will be able to establish a brand name using their CSR reputation. The company that markets their CSR will have brand differentiation. They can voice their efforts through their marketing, attracting more consumers and establishing a unique brand name. Innovative Products With a goal to improve sustainiblity, companies can innovate products that are environmentally friendly and create new products. The auto industry, for example, has innovated their cars so that they are much more fuel-efficient. Before, they used to be very wasteful with gas and released lots of greenhouse gases. Today, a person can travel much farther for much less gas. Another example for innovation with respect to CSR is the company Unilever. Unilever is the third largest consumer goods company as of 2012. [6] Bringing in a revenue of nearly 70 billion u.s dollars in 2013, Unilever remains as one of the most influential and powerful companies in the world. [6] Unilever has dedicated millions of dollars and thousands of employees towards the research and development of new innovative products. Approximately 1.3 billion u.s dollars and over 6000 employees were working on R&D (Research & Development) in 2013. [7] The result was over 300 international patents on new inventions. [7] Some products that Unilever include: an intelligent deodorant. Unilever developped a deodarant that reacts to stressful events or other things that induce an excess amount of perspiration. This intelligent deodorant offers more protection from odours and allows consumers to constantly feel fresh. Through research, Unilever has developped an effective response system that not only protects from physical sweat, but emotional sweat as well. Micro-capsules of odour protection are activated when the body undergoes a stressful event, or any emotional change that could produce more sweat than normal. [8] At the same time, the production of this new deodorant is cheaper than the ordinary type of deodorant and Unilever is continuing to strive for an even more affordable deodorant.This is just one of the more recent products that Unilever has created. Unilever has developped thousands of creative and innovative products, such as hair conditioner that uses less water. With the right goals in mind, Unilever has not only invented useful, high-quality products for the public, but also made CSR improvements as well. Its priorities to provide the best goods and services, its customer loyalty, and its environmental intiatives has led Unilever to becoming one of the most successful companies ever. I will be elaborating the social benefits of having good CSR in the next round. I wish my opponent good luck in the next round! Looking forward to an interesting case from Con!Sources http://www.generalmills.com... [1] http://en.wikipedia.org... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org...;[3]http://sustainabilityreport.timhortons.com...;[4] http://sustainabilityreport.timhortons.com...;[5] http://en.wikipedia.org...;[6]http://www.unilever.ca...;[7]http://www.unilever.ca...;[8]Swag