ABSTRACT
In this age, sustainability and balance is demanded in every aspect from various organizations. Many corporations came to realization that it is their social responsibility to maintain and sustain the balance between the environment and the society and the balance between the stakeholders and the consumers. The study is about one such organization which took several initiatives to fulfil their social responsibilities and provided to the needy community in their local surrounding.
INTRODUCTION
Every corporation in the world are expected to fulfil their roles and run in a predesign manner. There are few expectations from organizations today. When the company is built in a locality, the responsibilities and their roles had been automatically assigned to them. In recent times, more and more corporations are starting to understand and realizing that in order to stay competitive, productive and relevant in the rapidly changing business world, they have to become socially responsible. They are expected to work ethically, legally, responsibly and in a transparent manner. This is where the corporate social responsibility or simply CSR comes into play. “The concept of corporate social responsibility refers to the general belief held by growing numbers of citizens that modern businesses have responsibilities to society that extend beyond their obligations to the stockholders or investors in the firm. The obligation to investor, of course, is to generate profits for the owners and maximise long term wealth of shareholders. Other societal stakeholders that business would also have some responsibility o typically include consumers, employers, the community at large, government, and the natural environment.”(Visser & Matten, 2010)
In a developing country like India which has third biggest gross domestic product and contribute to one- sixth of the world population it is important for a company in this country to have a proper balance with the society and stakeholders. It can be done by fulfilling their social responsibility. CSR can be defined as a way to maintain the balance in the relationship between the corporation and the society it is in, the environment around it and with the stakeholders. “The CSR concept applies to all size organizations, but discussions tend to focus on large organizations because they tend to more visible and have more power. And, as many have observed, with power comes responsibility.”(Visser & Matten, 2010)
Earlier, companies and large organization have had only single responsibility which is to make profit and money out of it. But now that the companies are becoming socially responsible the meaning of CSR and related concepts are also becoming more and more refined. There are total five dimensions of corporate social responsibility: (a) Environmental ; (b) Social ; (c) Economic ; (d) Stakeholder ; (e) Voluntariness. “The environmental dimension of corporate social responsibility refers to the organization’s impact on the environment.”(Scilly, 2016) With the rapid degradation of environment, a socially responsible organization would prefer to use methods which have no or minimal harm to the environment and would think about methods which can benefit the environment. “The social dimension of CSR involves the relationship between the business and society as a whole.”(Scilly, 2016) Here society also includes the employees working in the company. In this dimension the company is expected to opt a clean and transparent trade method and goods which would benefit the society. “The economic dimension of corporate responsibility refers to the effect that social responsibility has on the finances of the company.”(Scilly, 2016) In today’s time where money holds the most importance for survival, an organization must balance between its finance and social responsibility then only it can make benefit itself and others. In case imbalance between the two, it cause a great loss to both society and organization. “The stakeholders are all of the people affected by the company’s actions.”(Scilly, 2016) The stakeholders include owner of the corporation, shareholders, consumers, employees, government and society as a whole. According to this dimension of corporate social responsibility, the company should consider all its actions and how it can possibly affect the consumers or the employees or the any other member of the society. The last dimension of CSR is voluntariness. “Actions that fall into the voluntariness dimension are those that you are not required to do. These actions are based on what the company believes is the correct thing to do. The actions may be based in specific ethical values that the company holds.”(Scilly, 2016)
LITERATURE REVIEW
Barnard in 1938 stated that “CSR analyses economic, legal, moral, social and physical aspects of environment.” According to EU commission in 2002, “CSR is a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis.” Another definition, given by Business for Social Responsibility in 2003 stated “Corporate social responsibility is achieving commercial success in ways that honour ethical values and respect people communities and the natural environment.” “For a definition of social responsibility to fully address the entire range of obligations business has to society, it must embody the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary categories of business performance.”(Carroll, 1979) There is however no specific and agreed definition of corporate social responsibility.
The broadest definition could be that the “corporate social responsibility is concerned with what is – or should be – the relationship between global corporation, governments of the countries and individual citizens. More locally the definition is concerned with the relationship between a corporation and the local society in which it resides or operates. Another definition is concerned with the relationship between a corporation and its stakeholders.”(Crowther & Aras, 2008) European commission also renewed their definition of CSR as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society.”| For an enterprise to fulfil their social responsibility, it should have “ in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concern into their business operation and core strategy in close collaboration with their stake holders, with the aim of : (a) maximising the creations of shared value for their owners or shareholders and for their other stakeholders and society at large; (b) identifying, preventing and mitigating their possible adverse impacts.” In simpler terms, “CSR refers to ensuring the success of the business by inclusion of social and environment considerations into a company’s operations. It means satisfying your shareholders such as employees, suppliers and the community at large. It also means contributing positively to society and managing your organization’s environmental impact.”(Global CSR Summit, 2013) “The definition of CSR has evolved over the decades, generally becoming more precise as to the types of activities and practices that might be subsumed under the concept.”(Visser & Matten, 2010)
A well-known business management author and professor, Dr. Archie B. Carroll, “identifies four areas that make up a corporate responsibility pyramid: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic. This pyramid has become widely used and is meant to explain the main areas that a business’s duties to its stakeholder fall under.” “The four classes are simply to remind us that motives or actions can be categorized as primarily one or another of these four kinds. Economic responsibilities are the first and foremost social responsibility of business. Before anything else, the business institution is the basic economic unit in our society. As such it has a responsibility to produce goods and services that society wants and sell them at a profit. All the other business roles are predicted on this fundamental assumption. Legal responsibilities Just as society has sanctioned the economic system b permitting business to assume the productive role, as a partial fulfilment of the social contract. Society expects business to fulfil its economic mission within the framework of legal requirements. Ethical responsibilities Although the first two categories embody ethical norms, there are additional behaviours and activities that are not necessarily codified into law but nevertheless are expected of business by society’s members. Ethical responsibilities are ill defined and consequently are among the most difficult for the business to deal with. Discretionary responsibilities or philanthropic responsibilities are those about which society has no clear cut message for business- even less so than in the case of ethical responsibilities. They are left to individual judgement and choice.”(Carroll, 1979)
“A relate concept is that of corporate social performance (CSP). The CSP can be seen as an extension of the concept of CSR that focuses on actual results achieved rather than the general notion of businesses’ accountability or responsibility to society. Thus, CSP is a natural consequence or follow-n to CSR.”(Visser & Matten, 2010)
METHODOLOGY
the company in Bhiwadi was visited to identify the data needed to be condensed into categories or themes for interpretation and subsequent analysis. the dat a below summarizes how the various csr initiatives are going on in the company.
The CSR initiatives of GILLETTE(Bhiwadi) : A case study
Almost every man in the world knows the brand name ‘Gillette’ and prefer it over any other. Gillette has a worldwide market which now has become a trustworthy partner of men. Gillette is known for their variety of safety razors. Along with the safety razors Gillette also produce blades and other personal care products including shaving supplies. This multi-national corporation was first introduced in September 28, 1901 about 118 years ago by King C. Gillette as a safety razor manufacturer. The first company of this corporation was based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States owned by The Gillette Company. Later in 2005 the corporation was merged with another multinational corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G). The Gillette Company before merging with P&G was a supplier of products under various brands.
The Gillette Company’s assets were combined into a P&G unit which was internally known as ‘Global Gillette’. In July 2007, Global Gillette too was dissolved and merged into P&G’s other two main division which is Procter & Gamble Beauty and Procter & Gamble Household care. All the brands and products under Gillette Company were divided and sorted between the two accordingly.
Gillette in India is known as Gillette (India) Ltd. The main business Gillette (India) involves the manufacturing and marketing of consumer products in India. The manufactured products mainly include oral care like toothbrushes, grooming like blades, razors, shaving foam and other toiletries, and portable power like batteries, torches and lamps. Gillette (India) has four manufacturing units all over India.
Among the four manufacturing unit of Gillette (India) one of them is in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan.
Bhiwadi is considered as the third industrial town in India with many different corporations opening their manufacturing unit. Gillette is one of the oldest companies with their manufacturing unit in Bhiwadi. Gillette has been there for almost 40 years. Being an industrial town, Bhiwadi attracts many sorts of people, environmental and social problem.
CSR PROGRAMS
(a) Education infrastructure
• Gwalder school
The first school build by Gillette(India) Ltd. in Bhiwadi is in a rural village area named Gwalder. Currently there are about one hundred and forty students who are studying in the school. And about sixty to seventy students take admission in the school per year.
• Taleemshala
being collaborated with a NGO named IBTADA, Gillette sponsor another school in Bhiwadi. The company provide the uniform, books, notebooks, necessary stationary items to the students studying there.
(b) Pollution control
With the rise of globalisation, there is a visible increase in pollution index in every country. India is no different in this case. With the sudden increase of multinational corporations investing for having their manufacturing unit in India is leading to the degradation of air quality along with the water and soil quality. Many corporations despite seeing the degrading condition of environment are clearly polluting the nature. One such action of theirs is to directly drain the harmful chemical water and toxic chemicals into the open land or any water body which will only result in harming the environment. But Gillette is different from those corporations and believes in recycling and treatment of chemical water or those toxic chemical released during any process.
• Chemical water treatment
Here by chemical water we specifically refer to the Effluent treatment plant (ETP) discharge water. The ETP discharge water produced while various manufacturing processes are treated within the company. The Bhiwadi site of Gillette is self- dependent in this matter and does not discharge the chemical water directly into the drain but rather they treat and retreat the chemical water until they obtain the desired pH. The figure 1 shows the procedure of how the chemical is treated in the company. The content in the reject storage as shown in the figure 1 would again go through the same process until there is nothing but thick sludge which will later be transported to the designated facility for reuse. The clean water would accumulate in another tank. This clean water would have a pH between 7 to 8.The whole process of treatment would take up to few days.
The company even after the treatment of chemical water into the clean water do not discharge into the drain. Instead they use the resultant product for watering the plants and trees in their company’s garden.
Figure 1:- Process flow diagram of chemical water treatment
(c) Ecological balance
Balance is very necessary in every aspect of life. Similarly balance in environment and balance between the human species and its environment is also important for the survival. Any imbalance can even cause human lives. The concept of sustainability has become an important ideology in today’s time due to the rapid rate of depleting resources. Here resources are not only non- renewable resources like coal or petroleum or fossil fuels but also the renewable resources like water and land. Due to the aggressive usage of renewable resources by the human population for past few scores has resulted to renewable resources following the same pattern of depletion like non- renewable resources. In some areas of India communities are suffering from natural calamity like drought due no water supply whereas another section suffers from severe flood every year. One of the reasons behind these calamities is the imbalance in the ecosystem. We can maintain the balance with the help of sustainable development. Gillette (Bhiwadi) is using this method to restore the balance in hope of a better tomorrow for both present and future generation.
• Rainwater harvesting
Rajasthan being an arid region has a low precipitation rate compared to other states and thus sometimes suffer from water shortage. Due to lack or no rain- water harvesting techniques even the rainwater get wasted. To solve a bit of the problem Gillette (Bhiwadi) has constructed total sixteen percolation tanks for rain water harvesting. The percolation tanks were built in seven villages namely Adeepur, Dhakpuri, Shadipur, Kultajpur, Baghor, Muradwas and Roopbas which come under Tijara block and district Alwar of Rajasthan. The average storage capacity of each tank is around 2,946.375 litres. The total water storage capacity after summing up all the percolation tanks is 47142 litres. The total catchment area of all the percolation tanks is 426.15 hectares.
S.No. Before construction Final photograph
01.
02.
03.
Table 1:- Percolation tank site photographs before and after construction
The elevated region in both first and second image of the Final photographs from table 1 upon raining helps the rain water to slide down to the percolation tanks and get store there later use. In the image there is muddy water but after sometime the mud would sediment and clean water will be available to the villagers. The constructions of tanks have greatly helped the villagers living around it.
• New sapling plantation
Bhiwadi being an industrial town is a very polluted. The rapid increase in the number of industries in this area is directly related to the increase in the pollution index rate. In previous year Bhiwadi was among the top five cities of India. The increase in the industries is also directly related to increase in the population residing in Bhiwadi which will lead to deforestation of an area for the plot. This plot will be used for housing for the incoming population. Gillette has notice the change in the climate of Bhiwadi and started planting young sapling all around the Bhiwadi in hope of better air. Around two hundred young saplings are planted every year to compensate the rapid deforestation. The major types in young trees which are being planted are Ashoka (Saraca asoca), Neem (Azadirachta indica), Guava ( Psidium guajava), Jamun ( Syzgium cumini) and Indian mahogany ( Chukrasia tabularis). Even though the participation is not mandatory, the employees of the company actively participate in the plantation and are eager to perform their assigned tasks.
(d) Waste management
Waste management are those activities which are done in order to mange the waste from its beginning to its disposal. It includes the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of the waste. This also includes the monitoring and regulation of the process.
• Recycling and reuse of hazardous and non- hazardous waste
Intent of this practice is to have a safe waste management in the Bhiwadi company site. Any waste generated at company site which is non- hazardous in nature is called solid waste or non- hazardous waste. These solid wastes includes plastic scraps like plastic caps, plastic drums, plastics cans, black plastic, plastic ring scrap, plastic handles and miscellaneous plastic item scrap; metallic scrap like Tin strips, tin drums, punched steel scrap, aluminium top plat scrap, blade scrap without wrapped, cans, miscellaneous copper item scrap, miscellaneous aluminium item scrap, cable piece metal, lathe and milling chips and cartridge scrap; and others like glass bottle, tube scrap, cardboard of steel packing, corrugated boxes, rubber scrap, used wheels, wooden boxes, plywood, miscellaneous floor swiping and waste paper cutting scrap. Each of the solid waste is being transferred to another contracted company where it is being recycled. Only cable piece metal scrap, glass bottles and tube scrap are dispose off. Solid waste is disposed to designated disposal facility for recycle and/or reuse.
The waste resulted from the manufacturing processes which have such contents which affect the normal environment is called as hazardous waste. This includes used batteries, ETP sludge, used oil, oil soaked cotton clothes, centrifuged grinded sludge, discarded containers like printing containers and the e- wastes like all computer parts, LED lights, electrical panels and tube lights. The grinded sludge, cotton clothes and ETP sludge are used in co- processing in cement. Meanwhile the discarded containers and E- waste are shredded and dispose to authorize recycler.
Categories CSR activities Dimensions of CSR activities
Education infrastructure School in Gwalder Social and economic
Taleemshala (in association with IBTADA) Social and economic
Ecological balance Rainwater harvesting Environmental and social
New sapling plantation Environmental and voluntariness
Waste management Recycling of hazardous and non- hazardous waste Environmental
Pollution control Chemical water treatment Environmental
Table 2:- CSR activities and their dimensions
CONCLUSION
CITATION
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