Good corporate citizens strut their credentials
Print Edition
SHANGHAI is home to China’s largest number of foreign-invested companies, and those entities are lending their weight to the drive to make corporate social responsibility part of every business plan.
It’s no longer enough for companies doing business in China to focus on sales, profits and strategies. They must also endeavor to become good citizens, said Zhang Rongjie, deputy director of the Shanghai Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment.
The “Invest in a Green Future” Corporate Social Responsibility Excellence Awards, organized by the Shanghai Observer, Shanghai Daily and Eastday.com, will honor companies in seven categories related to eco-friendly products, community relations, employee care and CSR innovation.
Foreign companies comprise a large part of the 80 award finalists.
Zhang said foreign enterprises contribute significantly to Shanghai’s economic development and want to recycle some of the profits they make locally back into society.
“For a very open market like Shanghai, we must have hearts in addition to technology and innovation,” she said. “Enterprises with foreign investment are eager to be part of that.”
Shanghai has about 38,000 enterprises with foreign investment, amounting to 2 percent of companies in the city. Last year, they created 27 percent of Shanghai’s gross domestic product, contributed 67 percent of its industrial output, and accounted for a third of tax revenues
Much of the focus of foreign investment has turned to advanced research and development.
By the end of March, Shanghai had 399 foreign-invested research and development institutions, accounting for a fourth of the total in China.
“When companies operate, they inevitably consume resources and disturb the environment,” said Zhang. “It is important work to encourage them to ‘repay’ society as they expand.”
Many foreign firms have set up special departments to oversee corporate social responsibility. Gone are the days when just being in a city automatically conferred public admiration and trust.
As early as 2007, the association held a conference on corporate social responsibility that drew the participation of 50 top managers from foreign enterprises. Four years later, the association initiated an award to honor good corporate responsibility practices.
Becoming a good citizen spans an array of positive contributions that companies can make to local communities.
This year’s Corporate Social Responsibility Excellence Awards cap a three-month process of identifying companies worthy of the honor. It focused on how companies assimilate in the Shanghai community and how they contribute to a greener environment.
The competition is also supported by the Shanghai Information Office, the Shanghai Commission of Commerce and the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau.
“Shanghai’s legislative meetings held this year focused on five areas: innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and sharing,” said Zhang. “Cross-sector collaboration and annual responsibility innovation are of special significance.”
She said that foreign enterprises have advantages in innovation, research and development, while domestic firms bring strength in their resource bases and knowledge of the local situation.
“Collaboration among foreign and domestic companies can combine the advantages of both sides and lift efficiency,” Zhang said. “Shanghai should welcome such openness and cross-sector innovation.”
The three-month-long “Invest in Green Future” Corporate Responsibility Excellence Awards has received altogether 100 cases from 83 companies. The event obtained wide attention, with more than 400,000 people voting or taking part in the event through digital media platforms.
The judge panel, led by Zhu Dajian, a professor at Tongji University and director of Tongji’s Institute of Governance of Sustainable Development, said the submitted cases were all of high quality, and contribute to areas of “green development”, “shared value” and “responsibility and innovation.”
The judges also included SynTao’s General Manager Guo Peiyuan, Professor at the Koguan Law School of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Yang Li and Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation Yang Ye.
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