CSR Asia - Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia

CSR Asia Summit 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand
The CSR Asia Summit is the leading CSR conference in Asia which aims to be the most innovative and thought-provoking gathering on corporate social responsibility in the region.

Corporate Community Investment Forum 2013, Singapore
A pioneering forum which will give delegates access to the latest research and trends on corporate community investment in the Asean Region, with a specific focus on impact measurement.

Professional Master's Degree in Corporate Social Responsibility
Delivered by CSR Asia and the Asian Institute of Technology

CSR Asia Weekly
Keep up to date with the latest CSR development in Asia

Featured CSR Asia Conference

03 December 2009

Governments commit, is business ready?

The Singapore government has announced that it is ready to voluntarily slash its carbon emissions growth by 16 per cent below 'business as usual' levels by 2020. Housing and transportation are listed as key areas where Singapore can achieve these reductions but as National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan stated "businesses will be one of the key players in this national effort". The question for business is are we ready? Many businesses are currently locked in the planning and reporting cycle - is carbon reduction for you, your suppliers and your clients part of that planning? Do you know what your current emissions are so you can implement a plan to reduce them? An increasing number of companies are looking to measure and manage, we work with an increasing number of companies around the region who are doing just this, for more information please contact us. We also work to record and reduce our own carbon footprint, full disclosure in our report here. More here on a recent research project: Making Climate Your Business: Private Sector Adaptation in Southeast Asia

17 November 2009

Shareholder v Stakeholder

The unlinkable BusinessTimes in Singapore has an opinion piece today looking at the stakeholder v's shareholder debate. Reflecting on discussions at the recent APEC meetings and research in this area, the journalist Wong Wei Kong focusses in on the employees versus shareholders issue. Two commentators were highlighted for their views: Singapore Labour chief and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Swee Say: "'wrap the downturn' in a socially responsible way. 'If you wrap up this downturn wrongly . . . (where) you give consideration only to the stakeholders, you give them more dividends - in some cases special dividends - and neglecting the role of the workers, then in the next downturn, it will be more difficult for them to expect the labour movement to respond accordingly" and Jack Ma, chief executive and chairman of China's Alibaba Group: "it's customers and employees - not shareholders - who matter in times of crisis because shareholders are traders and no longer the long-term supporters of the past. 'So focus on your customers. And, second, rely on your employees. It's your employees, as a team, that make the difference. Employees make all the dreams realised,".

The downturn has meant that how we do business and who for is being questioned at a global level, and as Wei Kong concludes, which I can only echo "It is somewhat ironic that companies that set out to put shareholders first may ultimately end up creating less value for themselves and their shareholders than stakeholder-oriented firms. For the companies paying generous dividends to shareholders while cutting employees' wages, that's something to think about."

05 November 2009

Singapore businesses go for green label and green awareness

There were two interesting developments in Singapore yesterday. The first was a business initiative - a green labelling programme for qualifying products made in Singapore. The label will only be awarded to firms that embrace sustainable manufacturing and can prove that they've achieved certain standards. The label is offered by the Singapore Manufacturers Federation and companies looking to gain the label will be audited by the Singapore Environment Council. The second is a resource for businesses in Asia set up by a Singaporean journalist Jessica Cheam. Eco-business.com is set up to be the leading provider of news and views for Asia Pacific’s environmental business community. There is definite momentum here in Singapore to enable companies to 'prove' their CSR and to also raise awareness.

11 October 2009

Government calls for improved CSR in Singapore

Singaporean Minister Gan Kim Yong has encouraged companies to implement CSR strategies that focus on the significant challenges the society will face in the future."We encourage companies in Singapore to become more aware of CSR and to implement CSR strategies that focuses on the significant challenges that we, as a society, will face in the future", he has said. This report quotes him as saying "Singapore adopts a practical approach to CSR, and believes that economic and social progress should go hand in hand. In our pursuit for economic growth, we have also not forgotten to strengthen our social capital, which is what makes a nation strong and resilient. Indeed, the strong tripartite relationship we see today, which has been a source of Singapore’s competitive advantage and enabled us to weather many difficult times, would not have been possible without strong social capital." I wonder how Singporean busineses will respond now that government has, at last, endorsed CSR.

01 October 2009

Anti-corruption pledge - Singapore

Earlier this week a number of businesses in Singapore signed the 'Anti-corruption and Compliance Declaration'. The voluntary declaration sets out to to encourage and ensure clean business as set out in the World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) principles and all signatories agree to install processes within their businesses to comply. (As mentioned in the event that accompanied the signing ceremony - the companies have to be confident that they've looked at these issues or their in-house lawyers would not have let them sign the declaration). We asked the organisers SIIA what the plans were for the Declaration - at the moment the plans are that it will stay open for further signatories to join and hopefully there will be further reports about implementation and success. More about the pledge, the event and companies who signed up here

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