Corporate and social responsibility (CSR) initiatives strengthen the appeal of products and services to consumers, and allow companies to steer operations in a manner that upholds their leadership's values.
One unifying theme of CSR activities is that they satisfy consumers' desire to spend their money on (and represent their values with) products that do not create negative impacts as a result of their production or consumption.
CSR efforts need not be limited to nullifying negative public perceptions, so that negative impacts are mitigated by positive contributions.
Ideally, corporate commitments to social responsibility can be incorporated into the structure of a company, so that the production and consumption of those goods and services constitute contributions to a more just and sustainable marketplace.
The pursuit of this second interpretation should be the purpose of any serious CSR initiative. This article recounts trends in corporate responsibility and sustainability initiatives common in the cosmetics and botanicals industries, and reflects on how to