New EU CSR Compendium

The European Commission recently published a newly updated CSR compendium for the EU. The main purpose of this updated version – compared to the one published in 2007 – is to take account of recent government-initiated policies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the EU and to track their evolution.

adelphi authored the Compendium and introduced a new, more reader-friendly structure in order to reach out to a wider audience. This new format offers a snapshot of CSR activities on the EU level and in the 27 EU countries concerning a number of topics: human rights, reporting and disclosure, climate change, issues affecting small businesses, Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), education and public procurement.

The compendium presents the different tools used at the EU level and by national governments to encourage CSR, such as: legislation, economics and financial incentives, information and partnering as well as hybrid instruments. It thereby presents the rich variety of examples that reflect the array of initiatives among different Member States on CSR. While some countries are more active than others, the Compendium seeks to validate all Member States’ activities and serve as a reference for peer learning.

adelphi served as the lead partner in preparing this Compendium, which was part of a project to support the work of the CSR High Level Group of the European Commission. Within the scope of this project further studies were also prepared on the following topics: the state of CSR reporting in the EU, responsible supply chain management and cost-benefit analysis in relation to sustainable public-sector procurement.

The CSR Compendium can be downloaded here:
www.ec.europa.eu/social/…