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                                                                      Corporate Social Responsibility

Responsibilities are those matters for which individuals or groups can be held accountable by others for their actions. They can be held accountable legally, and/or ethically, morally, or in regard to their impact on justice for the Common Good. 

Corporate Responsibility is the recognition and acceptance of this accountability on the part of public and private corporations, whether the corporation is a for-profit commercial venture, or a non-for-profit religious or civic organization.

Corporations have internal responsibilities on matters including but not limited to the following:
 - Working Conditions:  Health and safety of workers
 - Wages:  Sustainable Living Wages
 - Honesty and Integrity of Transactions

Corporations have external responsibilities on matters including but not limited to the following:
 - Environmental Impact of Operations: No contamination or degradation of the environment
 - Fair and just use of environmental resources, such as water, to safeguard the rights of other users in the local and surrounding communities.
 - Just relations with the host community: Justice in use of the physical and social infrastructure of the community. 
 - Payment of a fair share of the tax base, by which a community  funds its own
      development.

When corporations fail to accept these responsibilities, they must be held accountable by the community members whose lives and future are negatively impacted by the operations of the corporation. However, in many countries around the world, the communities lack the power to demand responsible behavior from corporations. 

When corporations do accept these responsibilities, they make significant contributions to the communities in which they operate. They are valuable and respected members of those communities. This was the origin of the charters given to corporations by the communities in which they were founded.

Investor Corporate Responsibility, also known as Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)

Investors in corporations, whether individual or organizational, likewise have responsibilities for which they can be held accountable by others, if not legally, then ethically, morally, or in justice for the Common Good.  

Investors bear the responsibility to be informed about the corporation’s products, practices and policies of operation, for it is from these that the corporation's profits are generated.

Investors need to make informed decisions about investing or continuing investments in the corporations in their portfolios.

     Investors’ profits may come from the corporations’ provision of needed products in methods of operation that are healthful and sustainable for the workers and the communities in which they operate. In this case, the investor is not only making a profit, but by the investment is contributing to the Common Good.

     On the other hand, if the profits come from products,  practices or policies that result in exploitative situations for workers, or in environmental degradation, or the provision of weapon systems used for oppression of peoples, then the investors must consider their level of responsibility in these outcomes of the corporations’ operations.  They must face the fact that at least a portion of the profits they receive result from these actions.

For more on CREA's involvement in corporate responsibility, visit these links:

	CREA Focus is a comprehensive service for investors & investment managers who are interested in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)
	Shareholder Work CREA's Activity with specific companies

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