Social Responsibility

SA8000 and CSR: Social Accountability 8000 and Corporate Social Responsibility

Next to the wealth creation that is and must remain central to the company’s mission, corporate social responsibility is becoming increasingly clear and evident

SA 8000 – SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY

The SA8000 Social Accountability standard has the following objectives:

• To Uniform existing codes of conduct
• To Unconnect from regional realities
• To give transparency to the consumer and others, in relation to the social attitude of companies
• Improving working conditions
• Working in parallel with global labour and human rights organisations
• Providing an incentive that gives benefits to markets and consumers.

The real innovation is that it is the first standard of social responsibility that allows distributors, branded companies and suppliers to ensure decent working conditions during all the supply chain. The overall impact of this kind of certification makes the standard a real guarantee of social respect and consistency not only within the certified organization but also of its suppliers. The ultimate goal, therefore, can be translated as bring social progress into all realities, whether they belong to the industrialized world or belonging to the Third World countries.

This is achieved through nine defined requirements so that they can be applied to any reality and anywhere in the world (Child Labour, Forced Labor, Health and Safety, Freedom of Association and the right to collective bargaining, Discrimination, Disciplinary Practices, Working Hours, Compensation, Management System).

SA8000 requires the development of a transparent, credible and verifiable management system based on principles that ensure the continuous improvement of working conditions and the impact of companies within the social realities where they are incorporated.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)

Being Socially Responsible means running the business in a way that controls and improves its social and environmental effects. The reasons to adopt the CSR model can be summarized as follows:

• Reputation and image improvement
• More competitiveness
• Attraction for investors
• Motivation and loyalty of employees
• Improvement of trust with the local community
• More access to credit
• Relations improvement with the authorities

ROLE OF M&IT

M&IT Consulting, has gained significant experience in the development of “Management Systems” in public and private companies of different sizes.

The experience has led to the development of “models” oriented to the satisfaction of customers and citizens, respecting and protecting the environment, the territory and the person.

M&IT Consulting offers experience and expertise to support companies in the development and adoption of their Social Responsibility System.