What is CSR?

What is CSR?

CSR is corporate social responsibility and that is the responsibility of organizations to act in ways that protect ad improve the welfare of multiple stakeholders. A key word in this definition is "stakeholder" where that is any group within or outside the organization that is directly affected by the organization and has a stake in it's performance. Stakeholders can be customers, organization members, owners, other organizations that work with them, competitors, community members, financial investors, any anyone else who would be effected by the organization's actions. This means a lot considering how the difference between a company that considers all stakeholders and a company that considers only shareholders can heavily influence a company to be more or less socially responsible.

So what does CSR look like in an organization?

There are two examples that we would like to share and that first is First Fruits apple orchard in Washington state. With First Fruits' mission of a "Quality fruit company committed to bearing fruit that will last" and having a business model of a "Quadruple Bottom Line of Profits, Planet, People, and Purpose.", it seems different from your average business. Instead of only offering seasonal apple picking jobs to migrant workers, First Fruits employs over 1,100 permanent workers to pick, store, sort, and package apples and operate the day care center that meets the needs of employees.

What really sets them apart however is the $5 million community First Fruits built when it became aware of the housing shortage and poor living conditions employees faced in surrounding communities. This community's rent is kept below 25% of the dual income family's full time monthly wage to keep it affordable for families. The picture below is a part of the community First Fruits built and it's named by it's residents as Vista Hermosa ("Beautiful View").

While that fulfills employee and community needs, First Fruits also makes sure that it's orchards are organic and through various methods substantially reduce the number and amount of chemicals they apply. Lastly, they donate over 50% of their pretax profits from it's apple and cherry sales to local, domestic, and international projects. This totals from $5 to $7 million per year. They also donate 100% of profits from a 50-acre plant of cherries and let their employees choose where to donate those funds.

These are all behaviors that reflect the general definition of what CSR is but we can observe how sustainable organizational behavior influenced these decisions and are effected by them. First Fruits' business model focused on not only profits as a business needs to, but also everyone who is and can be impacted by how they run their business. The planet and people it can either harm or help are deeply considered throughout the entirety of how they operate. They take into consideration the stakeholders of their organization and not only acts to be a positive influence but they actively help their stakeholders. Those behaviors are all demonstrative of sustainable organizational behavior and corporate social responsibility as it is not an act or day of CSR, but it is an orientation of the organization in how they behave throughout their operation.