IBM CSR Survey Shows Businesses Undercollecting Data

IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) second annual global corporate social responsibility survey of senior business executives again shows significant gaps between their goals and their ability to attain them.

Nearly all of the 224 respondents said they remain committed to incorporating CSR principles into their business strategies–despite the global recession–to improve business performance, societal contribution and reputation.

But the survey results identified three specific problems:

1. Companies aren’t collecting and analyzing all the right information about CSR or aggregating it often enough. That means they can’t implement real changes that would fundamentally increase efficiency, lower costs, reduce environmental impact and improve reputation with key stakeholders.
2. Few are collecting enough CSR data from global supply chain partners–missing a major opportunity to reduce inconsistency, inefficiency, waste and risk that can ripple through a global supply network.
3. Most still don’t understand the concerns of their key stakeholders, particularly customers, and are not actively engaging them. That means they’re not capturing valuable insights that could improve their businesses and provide access to new opportunities.

For example, only 19% are collecting data on CO2 emissions weekly or more frequently. The rest are collecting it no more than monthly, and most only quarterly–ample perhaps for meeting government or stakeholder demands for information, but not nearly enough to make systemic changes that would reduce environmental impact, IBM said.

"Our survey participants clearly understand that integrating CSR considerations into their business strategies is essential to their growth and performance," said Eric Riddleberger, IBM’s business strategy consulting global leader, who heads up the company’s corporate social responsibility consulting efforts. "But it’s also pretty obvious many of them don’t know what they need to know to actually make changes that would improve both business performance and societal impact."

Companies are coming under increasing pressure from governments, advocacy groups, investors, prospective employees, and consumers to make their operations, products and services more socially responsible. This covers a range of topics, including environmental concerns, labor practices, product safety and traceability, and procurement practices. At the same time, they are under tremendous economic pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiency wherever possible.

Other key findings of the survey include:

• 87% of executives responding to the survey say they are focusing CSR activities on improving efficiency, and 69% say they are using CSR to help create new revenue opportunities
• Only 30% are collecting data frequently enough to make strategic decisions that address inefficiencies across eight major categories–CO2, water, waste, energy, sustainable procurement, labor standards, product composition and product lifecycle.
• 24% are collecting this information only monthly and 32% no more than quarterly.
• 29% aren’t collecting any data at all from their supply chains.
• 65% say they still don’t understand their customers concerns about CSR issues.
• 37% aren’t conducting any research on the topic.
• Despite the current global recession, 60% said CSR is more important to their businesses now than it was a year ago, with only 6% saying it was less important.