CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility and it represents a self-regulatory business model that aids a company in being socially accountable to its consumers and clients, its shareholders, itself and the public for the decisions it makes and its overall practices. It’s a commitment to being socially aware of the impact that they are having on the world around them, including economic, social and environmental aspects. The ultimate aim is to contribute positively to society and not to damage it with its business practices.
CSR is especially important in the packaging industry, due to the sheer gargantuan size of the industry. Packaging and labelling surround us as products and items become more accessible than ever. You can purchase food and drink products in the doctor’s surgery, you can order items on the internet and wait impatiently for less than an hour for them to arrive via courier and you can even have every single meal made and delivered to you within minutes with just a smartphone. Due to the size of the packing industry, its actions matter on a huge scale. Take single-use plastics as an example. Unfortunately, only 32% of plastic is recycled in the UK, which means 68% of plastic created by packaging companies is either taking up space in an already overflowing refuse site or being broken down in an industrial plant at great environmental expense to the atmosphere.
An Easy Opportunity
It’s easy to explain all the moral and ethical reasons that a company should buy into sustainability and eco-friendliness, but an easy rebuttal is that the costs are too high or the shift in business functions could be too great to be logical. But, there is a real opportunity here to capitalise on the growing demands from consumers for companies to be more transparent and forthcoming in their plans to become more sustainable for the good of the planet.
Instead, look at this through the lens of an opportunistic and entrepreneurial business person. If the demand from consumers is there, why not beat the competitors to the punch? Take the moral high ground and encourage others to follow suit, becoming an authority in the industry by taking the plunge into the world of sustainable labels and packaging while there is still an option. The ban on single-use plastics is vastly approaching, and the regulations surrounding the use of non-sustainable materials grow stronger each year, so even if you don’t take the plunge now, it is only a matter of time before you have this choice taken from you.
CSR and Longevity
Many people believe that we must change how we treat the planet not for ourselves, but for the future generations that come after us. Consuming all of the world’s natural resources, virgin feedstocks and raw materials now won’t affect us, but it will have a punishing impact on our children and grandchildren, leaving them to find a solution for the avoidable situation we left them in. Businesses that don’t support these efforts now are sure to pay for it in the not-too-distant future, and many of the world’s largest companies have taken heed of this and began to make their mark in major ways. Mail order mammoth, Amazon, made the decision to switch their delivery vans to electric to reduce their carbon footprint, just as coffee giants Nespresso set up a visionary recycling system for their coffee pods and their packaging. Consumers are paying attention to these advancements now, and this interest will only grow over the next few years and decades. Failing to get ahead of the curve now may spell future disaster, especially when the alternatives are available and effective at this very moment.
We all make decisions every day. We make the decision on whether to catch the bus or drive to work, we decide on whether to leave the tap running when we brush our teeth, and we decide what products to purchase based on what we deem attractive or desirable. While this may have just been the product that caught our eye the most, it now goes much deeper than that. We choose to buy the reem of recycled paper, we choose to fill up a reusable water bottle and we choose to buy those products that cared enough about the environment and the world we share to utilise sustainable labelling and packaging.
