Corporate social responsibility & sustainability

Grant Thornton CSR & Sustainability Services in India

The buzzword today is accountability. There is a demand for public information on how do organizations conduct their businesses. Excelling in triple bottom line disclosures has started making sense in the competitive business world and is an effective way of linking organizational concerns with those of stakeholders.

The CSR & Sustainability Services practice of Grant Thornton in India was established as a response to the needs mentioned above and to complement the initiative taken by Grant Thornton International Network in this area of practice. Grant Thornton US has conducted a survey of business leaders in the United States and come out with a report titled 'Corporate responsibility: Burden or opportunity?' Grant Thornton India is the knowledge partner for prestigious awards in India like the Annual CSR Awards, NGO Awards, etc

A brief description of each of our existing CSR & Sustainability Services is given below:

CSR Reviews

Background

• Good CSR means good business. It is important to build your market credibility and enhance your reputation as a socially responsible company
• For businesses to prosper and sustain in the long run CSR has to be integrated, internalized and institutionalized. A CSR review helps you in integrating your social and environmental initiatives with your business strategies
• It identifies your business risks and control gaps to assess social and environmental impact and assists you in reporting your CSR initiatives, investments and way forward action plan to your stakeholders

Your Requirements

• Building an organization culture that internalizes CSR
• Rolling out social and environmental programs and benefiting from them without being and looking superficial
• Making strategic community investments
• Integrating products and services with CSR commitments
• Improving operational and management performance of the organization vis-à-vis CSR
• Building confidence of the stakeholders
• Creating business value from innovative partnerships
• Tracking and monitoring social and environmental initiatives and achievements
• Focusing on employee ownership and volunteering

Social & Environmental (S&E) Due Diligence

Background

• Helps you identify potential social and environmental risks that can impact your deal
• It assists you in prioritizing and quantifying these identified risks for impact assessment
• It identifies the control gaps against each of these risks
• Informs you on ‘as is’ social and environmental non-compliances to, seek indemnification, undertake necessary corrective actions and formulate the way forward action plan

Your Requirements

• Knowing the status on compliance pertaining to basic legal environmental and social compliance
• Seek indemnification against social & environmental non-compliances
• Understand the efficacy of existing social & environmental aspects management systems
• Identifying, prioritizing & quantifying compliance risks against control gaps
• Estimating the cost of mitigating these risks
• Assistance on standards to be incorporated
• Training/workshop requirements

Vendor Monitoring

Background

• The obligation to purchase ethically is on the rise due to increased pressure and demand from stakeholders
• It is imperative for organizations to demonstrate that they are conducting their businesses responsibly, have laid down appropriate standards and procedures for S&E compliance and are committed to monitoring and implementing them across their supply chain
• It is not easy for businesses to monitor their offshore operations due to distance and limited or no understanding of local laws, culture, dialect, etc.
• There is also a risk of undisclosed production Your requirements
• Ensure vendors understand, follow & comply with your COC pertaining to labor practices (including forced, bonded and child labor), freedom of association and collective bargaining, health, safety & environment, wages and benefits, working hours, discrimination, harassment & abuse, etc
• Discover undisclosed production units
• Announced and surprise visits and revisits to places of production in the supply chain
• Mitigating the risk of child labor in the supply chain
• Investigations pertaining to vendor selection & compliance
• Customizing your COC to suit local requirements

End-use Monitoring

Background

• End-use Monitoring gives you comfort with regard to effective and intended utilization of funds disbursed for socio-economic development
• Keeps a check on grantee from wasting resources
• Ensures proper utilization of funds disbursed for intended development
• Helps you assess the socio-economic impact of your funding
• Assists you in identifying risks and control gaps that can lead to misappropriation/misuse of funds
• Guides you in formulating way forward action plan for optimization of funds to realize the larger goal of socio-economic development

Your Requirements

• Pre & post grant assessment to ensure that your funds are being disbursed to the right people
• To assess whether your funds have been utilized adequately for the intended purpose and ensure there is no siphoning of funds
• Ensure appropriate internal controls exist for recording and reporting of expenditure under the project
• Make sue the funds bring about the intended socio-economic impact

Specific Studies

Background

• There has been a shift in the audit approach. The agenda is to move beyond compliance by adopting appropriate remedial measures to realize the ultimate goal of sustainability
• Specific Studies are required and designed to research social & environmental issues & problems impacting your business
• Such studies helps you to understand root causes and not just symptoms
• Helps you identify areas for intervention
• Assists you in prioritizing solutions and taking necessary corrective actions
• Ensures that solutions are not mere ‘quick fixes’ but are sustainable in nature

Your Requirements

• Conduct labor studies to assess, understand & address problems
• COC compliance studies to assess, understand & action appropriate remedial measures
• Pre-sanction, mid-term & ex-post evaluation studies
• Community, area and industry specific studies

Ethics & Integrity (E&I) Services

Background

• We assist organizations in setting up appropriate ethics practice, drafting/customizing their Code of Conduct, Whistleblower Policy and their Employee Handbook, conducting ethics awareness workshops and setting up & managing Ombudsman Office/Ethics Hotline
• We provide services to companies/organizations for continuous evaluation and in benchmarking their ethical status
• We use our methodologies, evaluation measures/tools & industry knowledge to review your ethics practice

Your Requirements

• Assistance in Code of Conduct / Whistleblower Policy development
• Review existing code of conduct and other related business conduct policies
• Recommendations to make the existing code of conduct more specific to the business
• Suggestions for development of communication plans
• Confidential ethics hotline
• Ombudsman