CSR Initiatives Your Company Should Implement: 23 Examples

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now more than just "nice to have." It's become a strategic lever for boosting an organization's economic, social, and environmental performance—as well as a contributing factor in sustainable development. 

The figures speak for themselves:

• 46% of all consumers closely pay attention to brands’ social responsibility efforts.
• Brands consumers view as having a strong purpose grew in value by 175% over 12 years—twice as much as brands with what consumers saw as a weaker purpose.
• A full 96% of all companies find that employees who volunteer stay more engaged than their peers who don’t.

So, how can you move from good intentions to good actions? Discover 23 examples of CSR initiatives that you can put in place in your company, on all three pillars: economic, social, and environmental.

Economic CSR Initiatives

The economic pillar of corporate social responsibility (CSR) aims to align a company's financial growth with ethical, sustainable, and transparent practices. In this way, we can build on a sustainable performance model that maximizes corporate profitability—all the while improving our economic, social and environmental impacts.

Take a look at a few examples of CSR initiatives you can adopt in this area: 

1. Work With Committed Partners and Suppliers 

When choosing your suppliers and partners, give preference to companies that share your CSR commitments—or even have CSR certifications.

2. Adopt a Responsible Purchasing Strategy 

Invest in sustainable (and if possible, local) products. For example, replace conventional office supplies with eco-friendly alternatives. Use recyclable packaging in your supply chain. Finally, favor grouped purchases to cut down on costs and the carbon impact of all those deliveries.

3. Certify Your CSR Approach 

Pass certifications or labels such as ISO 26000, ISO 14001, or B-Corp to demonstrate the positive impact and ROI of your CSR actions.

4. Fight Corruption

Implementing anti-corruption policies guarantees your company's integrity and business ethics and maintains trust among your partners.

5. Integrate CSR Into Your Company's Strategy 

To move beyond theory and into practice, align your CSR commitments with your company's operational strategy. For example, integrate indicators such as reducing carbon emissions or using sustainable materials into your company's strategic goals.

6. Publish an Annual CSR Report 

This is the ideal medium for communicating your CSR initiatives—and showing how they contribute to achieving your CSR and ESG (environmental, social and governance) goals.

7. Develop Eco-Responsible Products and Services  

Offer your customers the tools and/or services that help them reduce their own carbon footprint, improve diversity, equity and inclusion, or invest in positive-impact projects.

By implementing some of these examples of CSR initiatives, your company does more than just generate profit: it becomes an agent of change, capable of combining innovation and positive impact. This in turn helps with the ultimate end goal of keeping you more competitive.

Social CSR Initiatives

The social component of CSR focuses on improving working conditions, promoting inclusion, and strengthening employee engagement. By investing in well-being in the workplace, companies create an environment where everyone can flourish, in turn fostering collective performance. Here are some examples of CSR initiatives that can help you take effective action in this area:

8. Offer CSR Training for Employees and Managers 

Make your teams aware of CSR and integrate this approach into their daily work so they're able to apply and promote your CSR commitments, both internally and externally.

9. Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) 

Implement dedicated policies to ensure equal opportunities in recruitment and promotion. Set measurable objectives, such as achieving gender equity in managerial positions or ensuring a base percentage of people from diverse demographic and socio-cultural backgrounds for new hires.

10. Raise Awareness of Psychosocial Risks 

Musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular disease, burnout and other psychosocial risks can have serious repercussions on the physical and mental health of your employees. Learn how to recognize weak signals, and explain to your teams how to react in these situations.

11. Offer Employee Benefits that Promote Well-Being

For example, you can:

• Implement a teleworking policy and flexible working hours
• Offer healthy, organic meals to your employees
• Add value by offering ways employees can avoid physical and emotional problems through exercise and counseling services
• Set up a volunteer program to get your employees involved in community projects (which also adds value to your brand)

12. Set up a Network of CSR Ambassadors 

Identify employees motivated by your sustainable engagement who can relay your CSR initiatives and encourage their colleagues to get involved. 

13. Encourage Participative Management 

Are you familiar with Holacracy, sociocracy and Teal organizations? These organizational models all have one thing in common: they improve organizational transparency, boost autonomy and team engagement.

To find out more, download our ebook on the subject 👇

14. Set up Mentoring Programs 

Identify employees who can act as mentors—those who can help their colleagues develop their skills in one of their areas of expertise.

15. Organize Charity Events 

Why not get out and involved in community projects with your teams? For example, you can organize fund-raising events and set up partnerships with local associations.

Such examples CSR initiatives contribute to strengthening the well-being and engagement of your employees. Again, in the end, this helps you attract and retain talent over the long haul.

Environmental CSR Initiatives

The environmental component of CSR is essential to meeting major global challenges such as global warming, the preservation of natural resources, and air pollution. Here are some examples of CSR initiatives to build a strong environmental strategy:

16. Conduct a Carbon Assessment

A carbon footprint assessment identifies your company's main sources of greenhouse gas emissions: supplies, transportation, and energy. This diagnostic helps you set realistic targets, and prioritize CSR actions to reduce your carbon footprint.

Also read: How Can I Measure My Company's Social and Environmental Impact?

17. Encourage Digital Sobriety

The digital sector now accounts for 3 to 4% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. To limit this impact, it's important to encourage your teams to adopt responsible digital practices. Deleting unnecessary files, routine maintenance of equipment to maximize lifespans, and reducing bulky email attachments are all perfect examples.

18. Organize a Climate Fresk

Invite your employees to take part in a Climate Fresk workshop, to raise their awareness on the challenges of global warming and get them involved in your CSR approach.

19. Leverage Renewable Energy

Go green. Equip your offices with solar panels or better yet, choose a renewable energy supplier.

20. Encourage Sustainable Mobility

Implement CSR initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of business travel, for example:

• Pay your employees a sustainable mobility package to encourage cycling, public transportation, and car-pooling.
• Take the train rather than the plane for short trips.

21. Implement a Waste Management Plan 

Optimize how you get rid of waste: sort your trash and recyclables, set up agreements with recycling companies, and minimize all that single-use plastic packaging.

22. Optimize Your Office Layout

Adapt workspaces to pair ecology and well-being at work:

• Choose durable materials for furniture and renovations.
• Create green spaces by installing plants to enhance office space and improve air quality.
• Offer workspaces that vary to suit different uses (concentration, collaboration, relaxation).

23. Support Environmental Projects 

You can also pitch in on tax-deductible initiatives to make positive impacts on the environment. Think reforestation and anti-pollution projects, as well as more efficient resource management. 

Taken together, these examples of CSR initiatives can both raise your employees' awareness of environmental issues and reduce your carbon footprint.

A Final Word

Now that you have a few examples of CSR initiatives you can put in place, you're probably wondering, "So where do I start with all this?". Here are a few tips for deploying a CSR strategy with impact: 

• Choose a CSR team or contact person who can guide your CSR approach.
• Conduct a CSR audit to identify your strengths and areas for improvement.
• Determine your priorities based on your budget, resources and identified areas for improvement.
• Launch CSR actions on the subjects you have identified as priorities.
• Regularly measure your impact with key KPIs so you can tweak your strategy accordingly.

PS: If diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are among your priorities, then this checklist should interest you 👇

Access the Checklist

In our DEI checklist, you’ll discover:

• 10 key actions to assess and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace
• Inspiring examples of DEI initiatives implemented by global giants like Netflix and Microsoft
• Practical tips for raising awareness and training your teams on DEI topics
• Tools to measure progress and continuously adjust your DEI strategy