French firms in Singapore are raising the bar on the region’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts by launching a sustainability charter.
The new charter, launched at a Friday ceremony by the French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (FCCS), will commit companies to sharing corporate social responsibility expertise amongst themselves and with other companies in the region.
Some of that expertise involves knowing what to avoid when implementing CSR policies on a global scale, said panelists at the event.
Paris-based senior vice-president of CSR for energy technology firm Alstom, Anne Guérin-Moens, said at the seminar at the Novotel Hotel that trying to address global CSR policies “from the top down” out of the firm’s French headquarters had been a lesson in humility.
She found that “trying to impose the French way was disastrous,” and added that firms needed to listen to the voice of the entire organisation and the voice of the customers.
Signatories included 32 multinational companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and non-profit organisations from Europe and Singapore that agreed to work with the FCCS Sustainability Committee to help promote cooperation on CSR practices within the region.
Sustainability Committee co-president Hélène Toury, who is a Singapore-based communications manager at global environmental technology firm Veolia Water, told Eco-Business that French companies have not been as vocal as other European companies concerning their sustainability initiatives and technologies, and the sustainability charter is an attempt to address that.
FCCS is planning a series of voluntary breakfast meetings and other events, and each signatory has pledged to share at least one “best practice” in CSR each year, she added.
Eventually, FCCS plans to extend the network to other chambers of commerce in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia.
On the same day, FCCS announced a guidebook on CSR for SMEs in the region.
Ms Toury said that the book was a practical guide to help SMEs reach international standards for CSR in small, achievable steps. These steps would be helpful for firms who want to do business with multinational companies that already have strong CSR policies in place, she added.
Joëlle Brohier, a CSR consultant who is co-president of the Sustainability Committee and author of the guidebook, said the guidelines were based on the European Commission’s published CSR strategy and CSR standards such as the new International Standards Organization (ISO) 26000 CSR principles.
Charter signatories Veolia, French food manufacturer Danone, energy technology firm Alstom, insurance provider AXA, semi-conductor manufacturer ST Microelectronics, chemical company Rhodia and logistics firm SDV gave examples at the 175-strong seminar of the types of best practices that sustainability committee members could provide.
The examples included ST Microelectronics’ strategy for dealing with conflict minerals and hazardous chemicals, SDV’s steps toward meeting customer demands for low-carbon emission transport options and Alstom’s efforts to involve its suppliers and 95 thousand employees in its CSR initiatives.
Panellists at the seminar urged multinational companies within the region to approach CSR issues with an open mind.
While some CSR issues such as worker safety and child labour were non-negotiable, reconciling different cultural values was an important step that required flexibility, they said.
French Ambassador to Singapore Olivier Caron said that environmentally sustainable development had become a “major driver” of business opportunities in the region, and applauded the signatories for their “forward-looking spirit”.
