CSR360

Posted: Tuesday 24 July 12, 4.51pm GMT

Can you tell us about a key CSR issue your organization is focusing on at the moment?

ACCIÓN RSE is focusing on the issue of fostering dialogue between a wide range of different actors in the Chilean society, with the aim of building trust for reaching sustainable development. With a growing economy, short on inclusive development, Chile needs to strengthen the public debate, in order to find innovative solutions to existing challenges. Our main concern lies in the restoration of trust among social, public and economic actors, since we believe that win-win relationships are built on the basis of open and genuine communication. We are certain that the only way for building a real sustainable society, with social justice, respect for the environment and economic growth, is through the co-creation of development processes which could lead us all to a fair country.

Can you tell us about a programme you are running?

We are busy with a number of associative programs focused on promoting healthy lifestyles, improving the quality of the education and mitigating impacts on climate change. Additionally, we are running “themed committees” on ethics and corporate government, environment, work/life balance, community relations, as well as supply chain. These groups, which gather representatives from business, public sector and academic institutions, meet every month. From this year onwards, we have identified four rings of influence:

• An introduction for companies just getting into the topic
• Sharing practices and discussing common issues for companies which are already working on the fields with specific projects
• Contributing to third parties such as SMEs, other companies or students where more experienced companies share and influencing others based on their successes and failures
• Working towards public policies

Our boards of CEOS, strategic managers and sustainability report managers are the groups where this ACCION RSE strategy is developed.

Can you tell us about your strategic vision for the next 5-10 years and explain if this has any global aspirations?

Our vision is to contribute to make of Chile a sustainable, developed and inclusive nation, hosting a better society and happier people. This goal is a driving force to position CSR and to foster real changes among companies through sustainability methodologies. Our aspirations are mainly local, but absolutely connected to world trends on sustainable companies’ management as a contribution to a better world.

Do any of your campaigns or programmes rely on businesses collaborating to achieve a common goal?

Our main focus is to produce real changes in the companies associated to ACCION RSE. But we also expect to broaden our scope of influence, reaching also other stakeholders (“influence rings”). Today, we are working on other ways of collaboration, such as exporting company’s experiences to other sectors and the establishment of public-private alliances.