Six Technology Tactics to Promote Corporate Responsibility

Six Technology Tactics to Promote Corporate Social Responsibility
An Epicor White PaperWHITE PAPER
Table of Contents
Corporate Social Responsibility 1 What Does 'Green' Mean to Your Business? 1 Globalization - More Than a Trend 2 Gaining Momentum - Regulatory and Social Trends 2 Forward Thinking for a Socially Responsible Business 3 The Difference Maker - Technology 4 1. Strategic Sourcing and Procurement 4 2. Continuous Process Improvement 5 3. Product Lifecycle Management 6 4. Logistics 6 5. Performance Management and Measurement 7 6. Virtualization 8 Move Slowly at Your Own Peril 8 Introducing Epicor Next-Generation Enterprise Applications 9 About Epicor 10
Six Technology Tactics to Promote Corporate Social Responsibility i WHITE PAPER
Corporate Social Responsibility
As the world continues to analyze energy availability and the long-term effects of climate change, businesses too are turning their attention to an area of opportunity-reduction of carbon emissions, energy conservation and supply chain sustainability. Despite the fact that government incentives in this area are still in their infancy, many businesses are finding that these initiatives go beyond simple good-citizenship to real business opportunities and bottom line savings that can contribute financial value to the organization while meeting demanding customer requirements. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a relatively new precept for business. Conceptually, CSR holds organizations to a higher moral and ethical standard considering the overall interests of society in the operations of its day-to-day business. Under this utilitarian view, businesses would need to take responsibility for the impact of their activities on all parties that they would affect-customers, shareholders, surrounding communities, and the environment-in all aspects of their operations. Ultimately, companies will look to IT and software solutions to help them find opportunities to be better stewards of the environment and extend the tangible benefits of corporate social responsibility from the business through the extended supply chain.
What Does 'Green' Mean
to Your Business?
How do you define 'Green IT' initiatives and how do they fit into the CSR statements of direction that many companies are now implementing? These are questions most CEOs and CIOs are struggling with on a daily basis. Being green is a subset of the broader world of supply chain sustainability and corporate social responsibility. In the purest sense, sustainability incorporates a multitude of supply chain considerations such as fair labor practices, energy and resource conservation, human rights, and community responsibility. Many equate CSR to the reduction of emissions of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, but the concept of CSR goes beyond the local impact of a business to their extended supply chain. Many companies are now managing global supply chains and need to adhere to a more global view of sustainability and hold themselves to many of the same regulatory and social standards across multiple geographies.
Six Technology Tactics to Promote Corporate Social Responsibility 1 WHITE PAPER
Globalization - More Than a Trend
Globalization is driving longer and more complex supply chains. Distribution and manufacturing activities are pushing companies to assess the social and environmental impact of their supply chain on the world. Supply chains are continually changing and operating within the scope of modern technology limits for getting product from point A to point B. Modern supply chains are cracking under the stress of a multitude of macroeconomic factors such as the high cost of oil and increasing environmental regulations intended to minimize the impact of carbon emissions-these factors were never considerations as little as a decade ago. Even five years ago, would anyone have predicted $4.00 per gallon for gasoline? Building a sustainable supply chain is of paramount importance for many CEOs. A PricewaterhouseCoopers poll found that 70% of CEOs 1believe that CSR is vital to their firm's profitability *. Today companies are considering redesigning long and complex supply chains to reduce transportation costs and the associated carbon footprint generated by moving goods long distances. Incorporation of carbon emission measurement as part of a supply chain network des... [download for more]