How do Global Retail Companies utilize Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

Abstract: Corporations around the world are today acknowledging more and more the need of long-term sustainability strategies integrated into their core businesses. This has led to the use of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) framework. H&M and UNIQLO are no different. They are established global retailing companies and heavily affected by the consumers demand of a sustainable work process. The demands are often heard when news hits of problems in the supply-chain. This can be issues like unsatisfactory working conditions in factories, environmental issues caused by production and general imbalance of labor policies. Such problems have put pressure on the companies to enact a proper reporting framework for their sustainability efforts and that is the focus of this thesis. The objective is to understand how well the organizations’ have been using CSR and the goal is to look at their behavior within their supply chain processes and their environmental focus. We will then benchmark them according to the sustainability measurement framework called Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). GRI is a framework widely used by the top global companies today and as it has a diversified perspective on CSR; it can expand the views of CSR from the consumer and the corporate perspective to a global reporting perspective. That perspective is unbiased and globally accepted. The conclusions drawn in the end of the thesis, shows the similarities and differences of the companies CSR actions and the gap that they need to fill to really strengthen their focus on CSR. A way forward is to understand these gaps and create a strategy which will help the companies overcome these obstacles in the long run.