At Arete Publica Associates, we believe in Doing Well, by Doing Good. In the world of public affairs consulting, this mission means aiding businesses in complying with and acknowledging the importance of their corporation’s social responsibilities.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) management can be broken down into three categories:
Environmental Sustainability
Social Responsibility
Governance and Accountability
Arete Publica Associates can help your business to ensure not only compliance, but excellence in these three fields.
Environmental Sustainability
In a day and age where practicing conscientious environmental sustainability is vital for ensuring the health and security of our global environment for future generations, Arete Publica Associates is here to help your business. We can guide you to establish an environmental management system (an ISO 14001) and introduce sustainable circular economy concepts to your business’s product design and life-cycle management.
An ISO 14001 environmental management system (commonly referred to as an EMS) is a structured system designed to help organizations manage their environmental impacts and improve environmental performance caused by their products, services and activities. An environmental management system provides structure to environmental management and covers areas such as training, record management, inspections, objectives and policies.
For more information on EMS, please follow the following link:
Social Responsibility
An important aspect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is adherence to various codes and standards, including the International Standard (ISO) for Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Management Systems (called ISO 45001:2018), which aims at the reduction of occupational injuries and diseases, and seeks to promote and protect both physical and mental health.
The relatively new ISO-standard is based on the long-established British standard OHSAS 18001, as well as on the guidelines of the International Labour Organization and other national standards. ISO 45001 follows the basic structure of other well-known ISO standards, and this makes integrating these standards more manageable.
At Arete Publica Associates®, we can keep your business up to date on changes in standards or regulations, and provide advice on changes your business needs to integrate into your operations in compliance with these standards.
Governance and Accountability
The governance and accountability aspect of CSR deals with governmental policies and practices, codes of conduct for ethical behavior, compliance with these codes, and transparency guidelines. While key topics in environmental sustainability and employee resources can be delegated to a business’s relevant internal departments, the core responsibility for governance and accountability ultimately lies with a business’s upper management. Therefore, it is important to establish a Code of Conduct for a business’s employees and supply chains to follow. Furthermore, it’s vital to monitor progress made in environmental management, human rights initiatives, and ethical accountability.
CSR support packages Arete Publica Associates® can provide for your organization include:
CSR Strategy Development
We can help you develop and formulate a coherent corporate social responsibility strategy which encompasses all three aforementioned categories: Environmental Sustainability, Social Responsibility, and Governance and Accountability.
Code of Conduct Creation and Implementation
We can work with your business to tailor an ethical Code of Conduct for your employees, managers, and suppliers, so that you can assure that your products and services are fully in compliance with the latest legal and ethical requirements and expectations.
Code of Conduct Training of Management and Staff
We can aid you in crafting Code of Conduct training programs for your employees in the form of in-house or online training workshops.
Analysis of CSR Risks in Your Business’s Production and Supply Chain
Do you know where each of your business’s factories or suppliers stands with respect to the many environmental, social and governmental requirements of CSR? We can help you design and manage relevant audits to supervise your supply chain’s compliance and accountability.
CSR Branding
We can aid you in developing branding strategies to communicate your business’s commitment to CSR to the rest of the world. We can aid you in developing ways to market your business’s ongoing commitments and positive social impacts.
Compliance Analysis
This is one of the most important types of CSR support which Arete Publica Associates®can provide your business with. We can grant your business assurance that your operations are in compliance with relevant CSR codes, thus ensuring that you business doesn’t face the threats of legal backlash due to non-compliance. This work would be undertaken by us in conjunction with your legal team or external legal experts.