Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50895
Top row (l to r): Terry Badour, Brian Armstrong, Todd Melendy Bottom row: Anna Kinastowski, Fred Krebs [ ON CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INHOUSE: What does CSR mean to you and your company? ARMSTRONG: It is a term that has, I think, come into usage relatively recently. Th ere used to be a term that was more commonly used, and it was called corpo- rate citizenship. I think it is all about the same kind of thing. I think "corporate social responsibility" can be defi ned as an organization that recognizes its obliga- tions to society, in the broadest sense, and seeks not only to serve its shareholders but recognizes the legitimate interests of all of its stakeholders, its employees, its suppli- ers, its customers, and the environment. BADOUR: Well, from our perspective, it is ] very much the same. We focus and we de- fi ne it by our relationship to communities, which is similar to the concept of stake- holders. We are in the hospitality business, so we are looking to the local communi- ties where we might have a hotel opera- tion or deals with perhaps a stakeholder in respect of the business itself, which could be a particular supplier. It could be our colleagues. But it is in that relationship. KINASTOWSKI: Well, I think for the City of Toronto, striving to be a leader in en- vironmental initiatives, it is a bit of a dif- ferent perspective because, as the govern- ment, we are looking not only internally at our own processes and our own buildings and our own various policies, but they will have an impact on all citizens of the city. It is not profi ts, it is not shareholders — it is the public at large. And how do you best set up policies that lead to certain actions that will be of benefi t for the long term? MELENDY: At Celestica, we see it as a commitment to not just comply with the law but to go beyond that in the ar- eas of environment-employee relations; and to make sure that people are treated with dignity and respect, and the envi- ronment is treated with the same dig- nity and respect; to advance causes that, typically, corporations weren't or didn't feel the need to be involved with. But it is certainly becoming not just an obliga- tion but also an expectation from our customers and our suppliers that we are going to act in a manner that is socially responsible for a corporation. KREBS: One of the things that our re- search has shown is there are multiple C ANADIAN Lawyer INHOUSE OC T OBER 2008 13 PHOTO:S SANDRA STRANGEMORE