CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility, 企業の社会的責任) is the idea that a company should not only pursue profit but also meet its responsibilities to society and the environment.
Examples of responsibilities a company meets under CSR
Obey laws and rules
Reduce environmental impact
Respect human rights and workers
Contribute to the local community
CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility, and what it asks of a company goes beyond legal compliance to cover environmental protection, respect for human rights, contributions to the local area and more. The company is responsible not only to its shareholders but to everyone involved in its activities (the stakeholders covered later).
AnalogyIt is like a neighborhood bakery that does more than sell good bread: it sweeps the sidewalk out front, tries to waste less unsold bread, and aims to stay in business for years as part of the community.
How to rememberC is for Corporate and SR for Social Responsibility. Drop the leading C and the remaining SR shows up again in SRI.
Exam points
ExamCSR (企業の社会的責任) is the idea that responding to what society and the environment expect of a company, in addition to pursuing profit, raises the company's value.
ExamCSR activities are not limited to donations; they also include work done through the core business, such as making environmentally friendly products or putting knowledge gained in the business to use for the local community.
ExamISO 26000 is an international standard that guides all kinds of organizations, companies included, in meeting their social responsibilities, while CSR is the term for the social responsibility that a company in particular bears.
Socially Responsible Investment (社会的責任投資) is a way of investing that evaluates how a company meets its social and environmental responsibilities, in addition to its business results and finances, when choosing where to invest.
Investors look at a company's efforts on environmental protection, human rights, legal compliance and similar issues, in addition to its expected profitability. When money flows to responsible companies, companies gain a reason to take their social responsibilities seriously.
AnalogyJust as you might pick an employer not only for the salary but also for its working conditions and its stance toward society, you choose where to entrust your money by the company's stance as well.
Exam points
Mix-upSocially Responsible Investment (社会的責任投資) is a method by which investors who provide the money choose where to invest, so its actor differs from that of CSR (企業の社会的責任), the idea of responsibility a company bears itself.
Stakeholder (ステークホルダ) is a collective term for the interested parties who are affected by a company's activities or who affect the company.
Examples of a company's stakeholders
Shareholders
Employees
Customers
Business partners
Local community
Government
Besides shareholders, they include employees, customers, business partners, the local community, government bodies and others. Under CSR, a company is responsible to all of these stakeholders.
AnalogyWhen a neighborhood festival is held, everyone affected becomes a party to it: not just the organizers, but the stall holders, the residents who join in, and even the nearby homes that can hear the noise.
How to rememberRead it as someone who holds a stake (an interest, or a bet), that is, someone who has something riding on how the company fares.
Exam points
Mix-upShareholders (stockholders, ストックホルダ) are only part of the stakeholders (ステークホルダ), a wider group that extends to employees and the local community.
The SDGs (持続可能な開発目標) are the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by the United Nations in 2015 with a deadline of 2030.
Examples of issues the SDG goals address
Society
End poverty and hunger
Quality education
Gender equality
Economy
Decent work and economic growth
Industry and innovation
Environment
Climate action
Protect life below water and on land
The SDGs are divided into 17 goals covering issues that span society, the economy and the environment, such as ending poverty and tackling climate change. Companies and individuals, not only countries and international organizations, are expected to take part, so the goals also give companies a guide for shaping their social responsibility.
AnalogyLike a term goal sheet the whole class agreed on, countries, companies and individuals all look at the same items and work on them from their own positions.
How to rememberIt is formed from the initials of Sustainable Development Goals, and the lowercase s at the end shows that Goals is plural (there are 17).
Exam points
ExamThe SDGs (持続可能な開発目標) are international development goals adopted by the United Nations, with 2030 as the deadline for reaching them.
ExamThe SDGs consist of 17 goals and aim to build a sustainable world.
Green IT (グリーンIT) is the idea of reducing environmental impact from two sides: making IT equipment itself save energy and resources, and using IT to save energy and resources across society as a whole.
Side
What it reduces
Examples
Make IT itself greener
Power and resources used by equipment
Switching to low-power servers, cooling data centers more efficiently
Use IT to reduce society's impact
Travel of people and goods, use of paper and the like
Cutting business trips with web meetings, cutting commutes with remote work
The first side cuts the power that equipment consumes and the resources that go into its parts, while the second uses IT to cut the travel of people and goods and the use of paper and similar materials. It can be seen as putting the environmental part of CSR into practice in the field of IT.
AnalogyIt covers both replacing home appliances with energy-saving models and using appliances wisely to cut the whole household's electricity and gas use.
How to rememberGreen is the color of environmental protection, so the term reads as IT with an environmental viewpoint added.
Exam points
ExamGreen IT (グリーンIT) goes beyond energy-saving equipment and also covers using IT to promote energy saving and environmental protection across society.
ExamSaving resources by changing how IT is used, as in going paperless (ペーパーレス化) to cut paper consumption, is also part of Green IT.
A carbon footprint (カーボンフットプリント) is an indicator that converts the greenhouse gases a product or service emits over its whole life (its life cycle), from sourcing raw materials to disposal, into an amount of CO2.
Sourcing raw materials
Production
Distribution and use
Disposal and recycling
Adding everything up through disposal and recycling and converting it into an amount of CO2 gives the carbon footprint.
4 / 4
The emissions from each stage are added into a single figure and made visible, for example by printing it on the product. Consumers can use it as a guide to choose products with a smaller environmental impact, and companies can use it to find the stages that emit the most and cut them.
AnalogyLike a nutrition label on food, it is a label that shows in numbers how much greenhouse gas the product emits over its life.
How to rememberA footprint is the mark a foot leaves behind. Read it as the carbon footprints a product leaves along its path from creation to disposal.
Exam points
Mix-upA carbon footprint (カーボンフットプリント) is an indicator that measures and shows emissions, so its role differs from that of Green IT (グリーンIT), which is itself an effort to reduce environmental impact.
Green IT vs. Carbon Footprint
Aspect
Green IT
Carbon Footprint
Key differenceNature
An idea and practice for reducing environmental impact
An indicator that measures and shows emissions
Scope
IT equipment and how IT is used
The whole life cycle of a product or service
How it is expressed
By what is done
As an amount converted to CO2
Key points
CSR is the idea that meeting responsibilities to society and the environment, not just pursuing profit, raises a company's value, and those responsibilities are owed to all stakeholders.
Socially Responsible Investment (abbreviated SRI) is a way of choosing investments that also weighs social and environmental efforts.
The SDGs are development goals adopted by the United Nations, made up of 17 goals with a deadline of 2030.
Green IT reduces environmental impact from two sides: saving energy and resources in IT itself and using IT to save energy and resources across society.
A carbon footprint shows the greenhouse gases a product emits over its whole life cycle, converted into an amount of CO2.