Talking CSR, it can sometimes feel like everyone throws around an endless number of different terms.

If you’re not sure about the difference between them, don’t worry!

Here’s an explanation of 3 central CSR terms and their similarities and differences.

CSR and ESG

Let’s start with two related terms: CSR and ESG.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is when companies voluntarily (yes, it’s more than complying) integrate social and environmental areas in their business.

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria are standards used to measure a company’s behaviour in connection with those three areas.

As you can probably tell, they are pretty similar since they share a focus on the three ESG areas.

Most times, you see the terms in connection with something or someone – such as a CSR manager or an ESG report.

But what’s the difference?

Let’s compare CSR and ESG reports.

The CSR-report (and the CSR-manager) commits the company to include sustainability initiatives in its operations.

The ESG-report sets specific, measurable goals based on those commitments and the three focus areas.

They both report on achievements, but normally, the ESG-report contains more numbers.

And that’s because they’re intended for different readers.

The CSR-report is usually written for customers, NGO’s, employees, and authorities.

In contrast, the ESG-report is often written for investors and other stakeholders.

You can run into the terms in many different places, for example as requirements, strategies, targets, goals – the list could go on.

To distinguish between the two, just keep in mind that CSR is about sustainability commitment, and ESG is about more specific sustainability performance.

Sustainability

The two terms above have the same long-term goal: Sustainability.

According to the UN Brundtland Commission, sustainability means “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

This is impossible to achieve from one day to another and without major changes to every part of an organisation.

That’s also the reason why you can’t call yourself or your products sustainable.

Despite this, it’s extremely important to implement sustainability strategies in your company.

More and more legislation about sustainability in our industry is coming – just look at the EU textile strategy.

And the benefits of implementing sustainability far outweigh the struggles.

Phew!

That was a lot of information.

We hope it helps you become even more fluent in the language of CSR and sustainability.