CSR is top priority for Tees firms

Apr 22 2008 Evening Gazette

CORPORATE SOCIAL responsibility - or CSR - is high on the agenda in boardrooms across the Tees Valley, according to a nebusiness poll.

It revealed that CSR featured in 69% of business plans. Of those that did not have a CSR strategy, several were involved in community-based activities. Only a handful admitted they did not know what CSR was.

Last week, Middlesbrough- based industrial services company Hertel (UK) became the tenth corporate partner of Stockton’s Butterwick Hospice Care, which launched a business package last year to support fundraising.

Anne Cooling, head of corporate development at the hospice, said CSR initiatives provided an essential alternative revenue stream for charities, but she said it also allowed companies to increase their shareholder value by demonstrating its environmental and social ethics.