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Marks & Spencer chief executive Stuart Rose has big ambitions. By announcing a £200m plan to become carbon neutral in five years, Rose hopes to “change beyond recognition” how the high-street retailer operates. Rose says his company claims it will cut energy consumption, stop using landfill sites and stock more products made from recycled materials.

Furthermore, he insists that extra costs under the plan would not be passed on to customer – his rationale is that a responsible business can still be a profitable business.

Rose is a firm believer of ethical business practice – being transparent and accountable to all the stakeholders in a company and overseeing its growth without compromising standards or human relations. In fact, his approach is neatly coined by the increasingly popular term, corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Market-driven
CSR is a response to market pressures for businesses to become more socially and environmentally accountable. From giant corporations like M&S and BT, through to the smallest of family-run businesses, CSR is beginning to dictate how, why and where a firm operates. With this in mind, all print buyers need to be aware what is required when following a CSR policy.

By definition, CSR is far from new. Its roots date back to the 1950s when businesses operating in an increasingly global marketplace began to find themselves being held accountable for more than just their financial performance. In 1972, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman argued against CSR. Claiming that it made for poor accountability and poor government – he called it “mere window dressing”. CSR took a back-seat for a long while after.

Angela Howarth, communications manager for not-for-profit recycling agency London Remade, says CSR’s renaissance is mainly down to climate change awareness. “Consumers are genuinely interested in knowing more about the origin of products and the ethos of suppliers,” she says. “Promoting your environmental credentials can entice potential customers and so should be an integral part of your CSR.”

Polar Print Group managing director David Gask says that any print buyer interested in following a CSR policy should check to ensure that their supplier has this mindset in place. “There are a lot of suppliers who are perhaps just paying lip-service. A good place to start is to see whether they actually have a CSR statement,” he says.

A look at a supplier’s accreditations will also shed some light on its CSR intentions, but Gask says having a standard such as ISO 14001 may not necessarily mean a rigorous CSR policy is in place. “It’s possible to have ISO 14001 and still not have
addressed some of the serious issues regarding the environment,” he says. “For instance, we print using vegetable oil-based inks, saving around seven tonnes in VOCs (volatile organic compounds) per year, yet I find it gobsmacking that you can have 14001 and have not done any­thing about mitigating VOCs.”

Of course, Polar isn’t alone in being environmentally aware. Cambridge University Press claims to be one of the leading environmental printers in the UK. “We are FSC- and PEFC- certified, which means we can trace the source of paper back to sustainable forests,” says marketing manager Alison Green­wood. “All paper is made using elemental chlorine-free processes, we use 80% vegetable oil inks in our manufacturing and no emissions from our printing are vented into the atmosphere.”

Mitchell, who himself is a senior manager at print firm J Thomson, says while there are a number of high-profile environmental management certifications, when it comes to the social aspects of CSR, there is currently little that makes a print firm’s policy and performance visible.

“Present checks on the supply chain are difficult. For example, it’s hard to tell whether your suppliers are using low-cost
labour, in poor or dangerous working conditions,” he says. “Of course, a site visit should be a prerequisite before a supplier is put on an approved suppliers’ list, but with print increasingly being sourced in Eastern Europe and the Far East, many buyers are unlikely to pursue this.”

Social transparency
Mitchell hopes the forthcoming ISO 26000 standard, due late next year, will change this. Still at the developmental stage, ISO 26000 will allow suppliers to demonstrate some degree of transparency in areas of social responsibility. “The reach and reputation of ISO 26000 is formidable and it’s likely that this standard will gain market dominance,” says Mitchell.

For now, there are a number of smaller social responsibility standards in place that suppliers can use to promote their CSR credentials. Chatham-based Kent Art Printers’ efforts in the local community helped it become a Business in the Com­munity ‘Big Tick’ winner in 2004, and achieve re-accreditation in 2005. Kent Art supports local charities by donating
money, staff time, printing and other resources. Work placements for students are provided, and there is also link with a French Lycée to bring students into the UK to learn.

“We can’t be involved in every­thing, but we hope that the things we do are worth it,” says Kent Art marketing and technical services director Paul Anderson. “It shows that we are actually caring about some of the softer sides of business life, rather than just cold hard commerciality.”

According to Anderson, having a CSR policy does add to Kent Art’s budget, but these are offset by the benefits that it brings. “The Big Tick awards gave us quite a lot of publicity and a fair amount of kudos,” says Anderson.

With regard to the environment, Gask believes that CSR doesn’t have to add to costs at all, as ample savings can be made in other areas of the business. “Where we pay out more on environmental stock, we save on less alcohol cost, reduced wastage, less chemical cost – I could go on and on,” he says.

Many feel that CSR isn’t being taken as seriously as it should in the print industry. Mitchell however, feels that this is beginning to change as larger organisations – which are sensitive to stakeholder pressure – begin to insist on more ethical supply chains. “Then, there will be a trickle-down effect as CSR works through to the SMEs,” he says.

So CSR is here to stay for the foreseeable future, and according to Mitchell, its implications for the print industry
are clear: “Those who act now will gain a competitive advantage in the short term, and be best placed to respond to changes in the business environment in the future.”