【Insights】GoldenBee exclusive interview | One CSR is not a slogan

Stefan Crets, Executive Director of CSR Europe Stefan Crets is Executive Director of CSR Europe, the European platform for companies and stakeholders to exchange and cooperate to become European leaders in sustainable competitiveness and societal wellbeing. Stefan’s deep knowledge of corporate sustainability challenges brings CSR Europe firsthand experience of developing CSR strategy and practice in companies.

Since 2005, when CSR Europe and GoldenBee co-hosted the Sino-European CSR International Forum, their collaboration has yielded fruitful cooperation in multiple areas such as establishing new platforms, hosting meetings and conferences, developing media partnerships and proposing initiatives. The decade-long friendship and partnership also signals a further step in Sino-EU corporate social responsibility partnerships.
In June, Mr. Stefan Crets was invited to speak at the 11^th International CSR Forum and was interviewed by GoldenBee. In this interview, Mr. Stefan Crets shared his insights on CSR trends and changes, CSR innovation and new CSR partnerships.
 
GoldenBee: How has CSR changed over the past 5/10 years in Europe?
Stefan：There has been an evolution towards a more productive side of CSR and sustainability. I think an important shift is the move from just being aware of CSR and sustainability towards exploring more about how can we make people productive and how can we make sustainability or sustainability challenges a driver for growth. Therefore the question is, how can we tackle sustainability issues through our products, through our services, or through the way we do business? It has drawn a lot of attention in Europe, and I think it’s also the same in China. We need to find the economic models for this.

Europe should compete on its creativity, technology, finding solutions for issues like climate change, demographic change, and insecurity and work on how we can make business sustainable. Only these things can make the growth of companies or the competitiveness of companies much larger.
 
GoldenBee: What are the key steps toward creating a sustainability supply chain?
Stefan: One of the key yet challenging elements of creating a sustainable supply chain is with buyers, not with suppliers. The kinds of terms of conditions buyers give to a supplier lead to very different situations. So the key steps focus on the commitment of the buyer. The supplier needs to be compliant to meet such requirement, however buyers should also look at what type of requirements they have. Are they reasonable? Are they stable? Do they build up a long-term relationship with suppliers? In Europe, we not only practise compliance with suppliers, but also have dialogue sessions with them. In short, the answer is, the buyer-side is important, and then the rest will follow.
 
GoldenBee: Why CSR Europe is so highly concerned about the issues of Youth unemployment?
Stefan: Youth unemployment in Europe is very high, up to 50% in some countries. On the other hand, because of industry demands, more well-skilled people are needed in Europe. There is therefore a gap. The world of education is too separated from the world of business so we need new ideas for evolution and new types of business. That is the main reason why we are concerned about the issues of Youth unemployment and are currently working on the European Pact for Youth.

We need to take action. In Europe, everyone is trying to do something. Companies are running good programs on education, skills development and apprenticeships. Governments and associations are also doing something, separately or together. They are agreeing to create more impact on and put more attention on the problem of youth unemployment. The Pact for Youth is also a driver for business to work together with various associations on the topic of education. The overall purpose of the initiative is to create more business education partnerships. Now we have identified the target of 10,000 new business education partnerships in Europe and are working towards it with companies, the EU and supporting organisations.

GoldenBee: How do you see the development of CSR in China?
Stefan: There is a sense of urgency. Multiple stakeholders are joining the discussion on the CSR development in China. Although I am not an expert of CSR in China, I still sense an evolution, which is that we need to tackle it together now. As for Chinese enterprises, it’s hard for me to give an objective evaluation, but I know Huawei fairly well, and I can say it is an impressive company from the perspective of sustainability. I saw that its Chief Financial Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and CEO all discussed sustainability in public. In Europe, I have never heard all the three talk about sustainability together. What Huawei did, in some sense, reflects that the CSR development in China has made great progress.

GoldenBee : How can the EU and China work together on today’s CSR agenda?
Stefan: At the level of the European Union and the Chinese Government, there is a lot of discussion ongoing around CSR policy. The European Union, and also several national governments, like the German government, Swedish government and Dutch government, have programs to support CSR development in China, such as the Sino-German CSR Project. There is also practical collaboration on the alignment of activity and policy discussion. I think more actions will follow and we should launch more concrete actions on the ground in the future.
 
GoldenBee: Why is collaboration so important in CSR?
Stefan: There are two important factors. The first is efficiency: it is more cost effective to do it together. That’s a very business-focussed reason. The second is collaboration as it creates more impact. For issues such as of emissions, supply chain sustainability etc., you cannot do it all alone even if you are a big company. For more impact and for success, you need to collaborate, and make it less costly to take care of these kinds of sustainability issues.
Collaboration is also important to in order to have better insight to understand the current situation and also to see where you can find solutions. So we take some regional approaches today and promote collaboration with non-governmental organisations, or with governments, or with cities. Companies and these stakeholders have different experience and knowledge.
The SDGs provide a good framework and good language for companies and NGOs to see what topics we should tackle and which topics we can tackle together and drive further action through collaboration. The business and human rights blueprint is a good example of this. These types of practical collaboration will be enhanced in the near future.   
 
GoldenBee : Where do you see the future of CSR going?
Stefan: An optimistic vision is that the overall sustainability agenda is fundamentally embedded into the business and that it still drives more integrated solutions for dealing with sustainability issues. This would mean that companies will transform themselves through working on CSR. Only really by embedding sustainability principles in the day-to-day work of the company can it promote the CSR further.