Corporate Social Responsibility

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German companies meet their responsibilities – also abroad. And have done so for many years. The BDI works actively to develop the Corporate Social Responsibility concept further.

German companies meet their responsibilities – also abroad. And have done so for many years. For the environment, for employees, customers and society. Nowadays this issue is being discussed under the concept “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR). The BDI supports this commitment and represents the following principles:

• CSR goes beyond current statutory regulations and is voluntary. 
• Just as varied as our companies are are the ways in which they meet social responsibilities. We therefore oppose statutory standards which aim to establish certain elements of entrepreneurial responsibility.
• A necessary prerequisite for active CSR is economic success at international and international level.
• The regulatory framework should be enhanced worldwide as a basis for entrepreneurial activities. This would include worldwide implementation of basic social and environmental standards. However, implementing these standards in developing countries may not become an excuse to raise the labour costs there.  

The BDI works actively to further develop the CSR concept. Together with the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) we have made one of the most important German CSR platforms available to the public via the Internet portal CSR Germany (www.csr-germany.de) . We help companies successfully implement CSR abroad via our participation in the Bertelsmann-Stiftung CSR WeltWeit (www.csr-weltweit.de) Internet portal. Together with some 40 stakeholder groups we are working with the federal government to develop a National CSR Strategy for Germany. We play an active role in developing CSR policy in multinational organisations.