Investigating Corporate Social Responsibility
Introduction
In this report I will research and investigate the impact of CSR issues on two businesses and
their stakeholders. I will also explore how these CSR issues take these businesses beyond
statutory and regulatory requirements. Towards the end of this report, the focus will be on
one of these businesses in order to evaluate how effectively they’ve responded to a recent
issue and if their CSR reputation has improved from this response. The two businesses are
large companies within the private sector; I have
chosen to look into the CSR issues on Tesco PLC
and Costa LTD.
Tesco PLC is a British based company within the
food, clothing and financial industry; it was
founded in 1919 in London. They operate in 13
countries around the world, with nearly 5,000 stores and
currently have around 420,000 employees.
Costa LTD is a British coffee franchise which was established in
London during 1971, with its headquarters now based in
Bedfordshire, England. The coffee chain operates in the special
eatery industry, with approximately 4,000 outlets, 10,000
coffee machines and 18,000 staff employed worldwide.
Section One
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), also known as business
sustainability is the ethics a business uses to operate and the
impact of this on society, the economy and the environment. CSR
is important because it provides added value to an organisation
and ensures that it is able to sustain its operations in the long-
term. Also, it allows a business to improve its reputation and
portrayal due to the positive impact which could help attract
more customers and improve the reputation of a brand.
General CSR Issues Affecting Both Businesses
The CSR issues affecting both these companies are environmental issues which include
energy efficiency and waste reduction. Both Tesco and Costa intend to wipe out their
carbon footprint to zero by the end of 2035. Furthermore, they both want to use renewable
energy as Tesco aims to use renewable sources for 100% of their electricity by 2030;
whereas Costa have already started to invest into developing their renewable energy
capacity as they have installed this in their farms. In terms of waste, Tesco has an ambition
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, to halve food waste within the supply chain by 2030; similarly, Costa has a target to halve
the amount of organic waste in the same year.
Impact on Tesco’s Stakeholders
Suppliers
These CSR issues can have a negative impact on the suppliers of Tesco, namely the energy
suppliers who provide gas and electricity to them. They will experience a loss in profit as
Tesco will be paying less for energy as they want to reduce the amount of emissions they
use. Also, they want to source all their electricity from renewable energy sources which will
make their energy supplier lose a lot of customers in a few years as other customers will be
influenced by Tesco.
Local Community
Tesco’s CSR issues will have a positive impact on the local community due to the increased
use of renewable energy which is sustainable. This is because this would alleviate the
negative effects of global warming and climate change which would improve the health of
the public. Plus, the use of sustainable energy would provide the locals with improved air
conditions, cleaner water and will preserve energy resources which means these natural
resources will last through many generations.
The Government
As well as benefiting the local community, the impact of these sustainability issues would be
beneficial to the UK government; mainly due to their ambition to reduce carbon emissions
by 2025. Moreover, this would strengthen the economy and improve public health in
England thus putting less pressure on the NHS as health conditions such as asthma and lung
cancer will decrease.
Pressure Groups
There is a positive for Pressure Groups as Tesco have adhered to their campaigns and
protests by making real change. The company has made changes such as using sustainable
resources, renewable energy, reducing the amount of food and plastics wasted. According
to Tesco’s 2021 report, they have: redistributed 82% of safe, unsold food to humans and
animals; removed 1 billion plastics from Own Brand produce and have a reuse pilot
partnership. Furthermore, they have adhered to other legal issues including the National
Minimum Wage and Food Information Regulations.
Impact on Costa’s Stakeholders
Directors
It will cost a lot for the directors of Costa to invest into energy sufficient resources, as they
have already invested into more than 5,000 solar panels in one of their farms in South
Australia (according to their 2020 sustainability report). Although, this could benefit the
directors as it would save them millions as they do not have to worry about blackouts
damaging crops as they are producing their own energy.
The Government
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