A company’s corporate social responsibility, citizenship and sustainability strategy should go beyond traditional reputation considerations and be directly related to its business continuity, employee morale and market expansion. According to the 2010 Edelman goodpurpose® study, eighty-six percent of citizens globally believe that business needs to place at least equal weight on society’s interests as on those of business.
Our Global CSR, Citizenship & Sustainability practice provides counsel and programming to both national and multi-national companies in a variety of sectors around issues management, communications campaigns, CR/sustainability reporting, management consulting, strategic philanthropy, public-private partnerships, public affairs and brand and corporate citizenship.
Our Brand and Corporate Citizenship specialty consulting unit develops mutually beneficial citizenship solutions through strategic development and activation services spanning the citizenship spectrum. Using our proprietary methodology and exclusive intellectual property, we launch groundbreaking campaigns that empower organizations to work in collaboration with their core stakeholders to take action and fuel movements that effect positive social change for their mutual benefit.
Through Edelman’s management consultancy, First&42nd, we also work with subject matter experts in environmental technology, ethical sourcing and sustainable agriculture to provide seamless counsel for strategic communications, stakeholder relations and business practices.
Edelman has been involved in the creation and/or activation of some of the world’s most notable citizenship initiatives such as GE Ecomagination, PNC Grow Up Great, Western Union Our World, Our Family, Brita Filter for Good and American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women, among others. We are counsel to leading organizations worldwide including ITT, Starbucks, the Ebay Green Team and General Electric.
Highlights of CSR, Citizenship, & Sustainability work include:
• Performed an audit of a leading international consumer brand‘s work in strategic philanthropy, cause-related marketing, green marketing and social marketing. Contrasted results with their competitive set and emerging consumer trends to build a world-class signature program that generated a higher return on investments via a new value proposition; improved customer preference; and increased sales, employee morale and measurable social outcomes.
• Created an industry-leading corporate citizenship platform for a Fortune 100 firm, in close partnership with their executive leadership team. Conducted in-depth investigation into the brand values, assets, partnerships, liabilities and market opportunities to develop a long-term strategy that would unify and integrate departmental priorities, and ultimately articulate and make manifest the brand’s purpose. Elements of the go-to-market strategy included corporate social responsibility, sustainability, B2B issues management, thought leadership and social enterprise.
• Worked with a national nonprofit to transform the organization to a modern brand, energize its base and attract new legions of supporters. Engaged internal and external stakeholders to create a powerful cause branding strategy to increase brand awareness, raise significant funding and drive societal impact through our proprietary, data-driven methodology. Continued to provide strategic counsel and support in all aspects of the organization‘s fundraising, strategic partnership development and overall reputation management throughout the launch of new signature campaigns.
• Produced and launched CR reports to communicate company efforts and gain trust with key stakeholders. Engaged stakeholders for a leading pharmaceutical company’s first global corporate responsibility report to identify critical issues, organize an internal task force, draft content and advise on the launch strategy and feedback collection.
• Mapped and prioritized stakeholders for specific corporate and/or product issues and initiatives. Worked with a global food and beverage company to gauge level of support and opposition from organizations most interested in a new product. Developed an analytical tool to evaluate each stakeholder and trained executives in researching and prioritizing stakeholders.
• Established public-private partnerships with government and NGOs. For a prominent business organization, we helped create a task force to work with government and relief agencies to address effective private sector contributions to disaster relief efforts. Matched private sector donations with identified needs after Hurricane Katrina and developed policy recommendations to the White House, Senate and relief organizations.
• Built productive relationships with activists to correct misperceptions. Developed successful strategy for a timber supplier to engage critical environmental activists. Contributed to a joint declaration of shared principles that ended NGO attacks and gained recognition for the client’s sound environmental practices.
• Trained a global energy leader’s European country presidents to incorporate social and environmental goals into their practices. Helped develop and implement strategies for engaging NGOs on climate change, renewable energy and financial transparency.
• Integrated CSR communications and programs into traditional public affairs activities. Helped international agricultural business address criticism and trade barriers in Europe by communicating to NGOs, trade unions and political representatives about new social and environmental policies and programs. The program assisted the company in its efforts to gain increased access to European markets.
