Report on Responsible Business in Poland. Good Practices 2012

Report on Responsible Business in Poland. Good Practices 2012

The report “Responsible Business in Poland. Good Practices” (Odpowiedzialny biznes w Polsce. Dobre praktyki) is the most important publication of Responsible Business Forum (FOB), now issued for the 11th time. The latest report provides a broad presentation of the most important CSR events and activities as well as good practices employed by companies in Poland in 2012.

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In the latest report, we continued the division of best practices into seven areas as specified in the ISO 26000 standard. From among over 300 descriptions sent in by participating companies, we selected those that best exemplify the development of CSR practice in our country. Rather than choose a winner or create a ranking, our aim was to capture a still frame of the CSR reality in Polish businesses. The articles written by various experts show the question of social responsibility from a variety of perspectives and point out to trends for the year 2013. I also recommend reading the review of scientific studies and summaries of the most interesting articles published in the Polish press last year.
The timeline section presents the most important meetings, actions, campaigns and conferences of the last year in the area of CSR.

Last year was a busy time for FOB: early in 2012 we launched the Polish Diversity Charter, which was signed at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister by 14 companies’ CEOs. By the end of the year, the number of Charter signatories increased to 40. The project was run under the patronage of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment and the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection. The fourth edition of CSR MarketPlace in Warsaw organised by Responsible Business Forum hosted over 70 exhibitors and several hundreds visitors. During Responsible Business Talk meetings (Rozmowy o odpowiedzialnym biznesie) devoted to responsible business, we debated over questions such as healthy nutrition, prospects for cooperation between business and science, sustainable design and social responsibility of the Euro 2012 Championships. We had an opportunity to listen to Wayne Visser, the special guest of the international CSR 2.0 conference. We participated in organisation of the meeting with Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. We issued 7 publications devoted among other things to measuring efficiency of socially responsible activities, role of marketing, consumer education, management of knowledge in the context of CSR, dialogue with stakeholders, and CSR reporting, and an additional publication presenting 15 examples of social responsibility of business in Poland. With the help of EU funding, we were able to share our CSR knowledge with small and medium size enterprises in the Silesia and Pomerania regions. We also increased our partner companies, Responsible Business League ambassadors and Facebook fans. We continued our activities as part of Work Groups at the Ministry of Economy, and our cooperation with WBCSD and CSR Europe. We also participated in preparing the Social Reports contest (Raporty Społeczne) and the Responsible Companies Ranking.

The year 2012 will be remembered as the year of the London Summer Olympics (organised for the first time in line with the sustainable events standard), Mars space probe’s landing and Felix Baumgartner’s free-fall from space. Hurricane Sandy revived discussions about climate change. Presidents Barack Obama and Francois Hollande won elections in their countries and got their chances to deal with pressing social and economic challenges. This was also the year of Syria’s bloody uprising and the slow birth of democracy in Burma.