Useful CSR resources: Ireland

The following Irish websites and sources are particularly useful in providing further information on CSR / BSR to promote and encourage a socially-responsible culture within organisations.

Business in the Community (http://www.rbsmes.ie/)

Business in the Community (BITC) works towards improving CSR in all organisations in Ireland. It was set up in 2000 as a national non-profit organisation. While it first focused on larger organisations, it has recently established a division focusing on responsible business for small and medium-sized organisations. Through its website, BITC provides many valuable resources on how CSR can help both organisations and the community. It provides cases studies, blogs, competitions and checklists, along with other helpful information. It also provides useful services, such as assisting organisations in publishing their own Sustainability Reports based on their own CSR initiatives.

Business in the Community - Business Working Responsibly Mark (http://www.bitc.ie/business-working-responsibly-mark/)

The Business Working Responsibly Mark is administered by Business in the Community and is Ireland’s only certification for responsible and sustainable business practices. It is audited by the National Standards Authority of Ireland and based on ISO 26000 quality standards. It allows companies to benchmark their sustainable policies against other businesses and ultimately gain certification for high standards within this area.

Chambers Ireland - In Business for Business (http://www.chambers.ie/events/corporate-social-responsibility-awards/)

Chambers Ireland hosts the free-to-enter Corporate Social Responsibility Awards, which are open to business of all sizes. The Awards were established in 2004 to recognise the work being carried out by Irish and multinational companies to improve the lives of their employees and to enhance the civic environment in which they operate. Entering these awards might provide your organisation with a goal in attempting to be awarded for your organisation’s BSR activity.

CSR - Good For Business, Good For All (http://www.csrhub.ie/)

This is a particularly useful website to gain information about CSR and how your organisation, regardless of size, can incorporate CSR into its everyday activities. It contains many useful links to case studies, CSR awards and other websites that can assist your organisation’s journey into the world of effective CSR. Its aim is to be the central point for a communications initiative that brings together all the key CSR resources in Ireland. It developed out of a CSR Stakeholder Forum, established by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, following publication of Ireland’s first National Plan on Corporate Social Responsibility in April 2014.

Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (http://isme.ie/advice/corporate-social-responsibility-csr)        

This is a useful website for small and medium organisations located in Ireland and provides valuable insight on a variety of issues that are relevant to such organisations – for example, employment and health and safety advice along with CSR. ISME carries out regular reviews of the CSR culture within small and medium-sized organisations, publishes reports on CSR initiatives along with many other useful publications, links and information that can all contribute to the nurturing and improvement of the CSR culture within SMEs.

Extracted from BUSINESS SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: CSR FOR SMEs by Sana Khan, #53 in the NuBooks series.