English Summary: “Responsible business in Poland 2018” Report

23 lipca 2019

Dotyczy firmy: Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, BNP Paribas Bank Polska, Chiesi Poland, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Grupa LOTOS, Grupa Raben, Jeronimo Martins Polska, Nestlé Polska, PGNiG, Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne, Totalizator Sportowy,

The report „Responsible Business in Poland. Good practices”, which is the largest CSR review in Poland has been published for the 17th time. In this year’s edition of the publication, there is an increase of 30 percent both in terms of the number of submitted practices and the number of companies.

More and more companies implement and carry out Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. This is confirmed by the latest edition of the Responsible Business Forum publication entitled „Responsible Business in Poland. Good practices”’. It summarises the development of CSR in 2018, and its main part consists of good practices reported by companies. In last year’s edition, for the first time the number of companies’ activities exceeded 1,000, and this year the number has reached over 1,500.

The English Summary of the Report is available HERE >>

– We observe a very dynamic development of corporate social responsibility. We are very pleased with this trend. This result is due to many factors. Initiatives and legal regulations at the international and national level continue to appear, encouraging companies to be more active in the field of CSR. One of them are the Sustainable Development Goals – business participation will accelerate the process of achieving them. CSR owes its development also to the requirements of business partners to provide information also concerning non-financial activities of the company, confirming lower reputational and financial risk associated with a given entity. CSR is becoming an irreplaceable tool in the growing competition for attracting and retaining employees – as shown by the increase in the number of workplace practices by more than 30%. These are the main factors, but certainly not the only ones, because it is worth remembering about the growing awareness of consumers, key initiatives such as COP24 or nationwide and regional activities of non-governmental organisations in this field – concludes Marzena Strzelczak, General Director of the Responsible Business Forum.

1549 is the total number of practices included in the 17th edition of the „Responsible Business in Poland. Good practices”. The sum of companies’ activities consists of new practices – submitted to the report for the first time, this year 826 (previous edition: 639) and long-term practices, i.e. those that were submitted to the previous editions of the report, but were also implemented in 2018; this year there are 723 long-term practices (the previous edition: 551). The authors of the report also noted an increase in the number of small and medium enterprises, which has gone up by 10 to 60 organisations. The industries most numerously represented in the Report are: finance (32 companies), services (31 companies), trade (22 companies), FMCG (21 companies).

Areas of CSR

This is another edition of the report, the core of which is the division into 7 areas of corporate social responsibility proposed in ISO 26000 standard. This review allows to see trends and changes in CSR over the years.
The most popular core subjects, as in previous editions, include community involvement and development, as well as labour practices. It is worth noting, however, that for the first time in the history of the report not human rights, but honest operational practices were the least represented area.

community involvement and development – 601 good practices (291 new; 310 long-term) reported by 176 companies. This is the largest area, with 16 categories. Traditionally, charity and philanthropic activities come at the top, as well as those related to education of children and youth – 70 and 47 practices respectively, and the least represented are social investment practices – one practice. The common theme of 2018 for many practices was the 100th anniversary of Poland’s regaining independence and the 100th anniversary of the Wielkopolska Uprising and the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
labour practices – 417 good practices (237 new; 180 long-term) reported by 129 companies. In addition, this year, their number has increased by as much as 33%. Most of the new examples have appeared in the area of employees’ health. Measures to reconcile social and professional roles are also appreciated.

environment – 235 good practices (140 new; 95 long-term) reported by 101 companies. Compared to last year’s edition, there are noticeably more practices in the spirit of the zero waste idea, related to limiting the use of plastic. Due to the importance and development of the subject, a new category in the area of closed-loop management has been created.
consumer issues – 97 good practices (47 new; 50 long-term) reported by 42 companies. This year’s trends in the area are the availability of products and services and consumer education.
organizational governance – 83 good practices (46 new; 37 long-term) reported by 51 companies. The activities of companies in the categories of ethics and compliance constitute the largest group and account for over 50% of all initiatives.
human rights – 61 good practices (39 new; 22 long-term) reported by 41 companies. This, like last year, is twice as many practices as in the previous edition of the Report. Once again, diversity management and the promotion and support of women in business are leading the way.
fair operating practices – 55 good practices (26 new ones); 29 long-term) reported by 38 companies. Market education activities dominate here. Partnerships and coalitions play an important role in this area, the aim of which is to develop common solutions and prepare educational materials or create Polish language versions of standards and guidelines for business.

Next to the ISO 26000 area

The good practices qualified for the Report are assigned to the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. As in the two previous editions, the dominating goals are: 4. Quality education (351 practices) and 3. Good health and well-being (317).
Goal 8 is also one of the most common goals. Decent work and economic growth (214 practices), goal 12. Responsible consumption and production (175 practices) and goal 11. Sustainable cities and communities (167 practices). It is also worth noting the significant increase in the number of practices related to goal 13. Climate action have increased from 41 to 115 in the latest edition of the report.
Companies remain the least involved in the implementation of goal 14. Life below water – only 8 practices reported.
The „Responsible Business in Poland 2018. Good practices” report is a summary of what happened in CSR last year, therefore, in addition to good practices, the publication contains 16 expert articles. A regular element of the publication is also a review of selected press articles and a calendar of CSR-related events.

Announcement of the Report

The premiere of the publication took place on 28 March this year in Przestrzeń Marzycieli i Rzemieślników located in Dom Towarowy Braci Jabłkowskich in Warsaw. As part of the event, Professor David Grayson, co-author of the publication, delivered a lecture entitled „All In: The Future of Business Leadership”. This year’s introduction to the topic of good practices took place in the speed debating formula, which allows the audience to be involved in the discussion.

The participants of the meeting also had the opportunity to learn about the results of the 9th edition of the competition for journalists and CSR experts – Pen of Responsibility. Awards and distinctions were presented to authors publishing in the following titles: Coaching, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Harvard Business Review Polska, Nienieodpowiedzialni, Media & Marketing, My Company Polska, Personel Plus, Polityka.

On that day, the Responsible Business Forum was joined by: Chiesi Poland, Raben Group, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne. The following received the statuettes for their long-term cooperation: BNP Paribas Bank Polska, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, Grupa Lotos, Jeronimo Martins Polska, Nestlé Poland, PGNiG SA and Totalizator Sportowy.

On the day of publication of the Report the Responsible Business Forum announced the date of the next, 8th edition of the CSR Marketplace, which will take place on 29 October 2020 in EXPO XXI in Warsaw. It will also be the date of publication of the 18th edition of the „Responsible Business in Poland. Good practices”.

The „Responsible business in Poland. Good Practices” report is the most important cyclical publication of the Responsible Business Forum, published since 2002. The report provides an overview of the activities of companies that have reported their CSR activities and summarises the most important issues related to responsible business in a given year in Poland.