Placing Corporate Social Responsibility at the Heart of the Company

Aiko Bode, Group Chief Sustainability Officer at Fenix Outdoor International AG (Germany), says that the days are long gone when companies could treat sustainability, or corporate social responsibility (CSR), as a peripheral agenda item.

Today, sustainability must be a core tenet of a company, otherwise pursuing it tends to become a pure marketing exercise, he adds.

“Every company will need to reflect on what impact their business model has on the environment or societies and other stakeholders,” Mr. Bode says. “This is particularly true in Europe, where non-financial aspects are increasingly forming part of the legally-demanded annual reporting exercise.”