Our approach to CSR
Values, principles, systems and processes alone are not enough to ensure continued commitment and progress. We constantly look to learn from and better understand the world around us. We share what we learn across our businesses and use it to inform our collective thinking and decision making. We continue to embed this learning in our plans and activities, our business systems and processes.
We recognise that the world is constantly changing and that there will be new CSR challenges and opportunities. We also know we will have to tackle long-standing issues in new ways.
To help us do this, we draw on the collective experience of our colleagues throughout the business. The input of the non-executive directors of Cadbury Schweppes has been particularly helpful. We benchmark ourselves against peers and competitors. We learn from leading companies in other business sectors. We listen to the concerns of NGOs and local communities. And we contribute to and learn from outside organisations such as Forum for the Future, The Corporate Citizenship Company, Business for Social Responsibility, Business in the Community, the Institute of Business Ethics and the International Business Leaders’ Forum.
We take an active leadership role in cross-country industry key initiatives such as the International Cocoa Initiative, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and the International Business Leaders’ Forum, Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyle (HEAL) programme.
The success of each business unit depends upon understanding its consumers and the communities it serves. Our regions and local companies must look to live our CSR values in ways that make sense for their business and brands, and to the needs of their local community.
Embedding CSR
Between 2001 and 2003 we established clear CSR policies and commitments. We built processes to support Our Business Principles and we strengthened those of our programmes which focus on sourcing and community, and on ethical marketing and consumer impact. We established measures for our CSR performance. Over this time we have evolved a number of tools and building blocks, the first of which was our Five Pillars of CSR. We report our progress against each of these pillars in the pages that follow.
The responsibility pyramid
As we continue to embed CSR practice within the organisation, we have recognised some important strategic levels, as illustrated in the ‘Responsibility Pyramid’ below. Straightforward risk avoidance is the first step of most companies’ journey in CSR, and we are progressing beyond simple reputation enhancement and issue management. We believe that acting responsibly will fuel sustainable growth and advantage for our brands and see CSR as a positive contributor to our competitive strategy.
Living our Values – Leadership Imperatives
In our Leadership Imperatives programme for managers we include an important section on Living our Values. This highlights the values and behaviours we expect of our people in our businesses around the world and ensures our CSR agenda is embedded into local plans.
We ask our people to put Cadbury Schweppes’ values into action in the things they do and say every day. We expect all of our people to recognise and value the full range of individual contributions, ideas and cultures and work with them to create maximum value for the organisation and its stakeholders.
We expect all of our managers to live up to our values and assessment of performance in this area is included in our individual performance reviews each year. Increasingly we have come to view CSR as providing a set of essential guiding principles and valuable ways of working.
