Activism in Action – If It Doesn’t Work with a Shovel, It Can Work with Chocolate

It is not necessary to take a broom or shovel in hand and pose for a media photo alongside your employees to send a message about social responsibility in business. CSR includes sponsorships and donations as well as care for the environment, employees, the local community, sustainability…

If someone were to utter ‘CSR’ at this moment, admit it, for most, the image of Zvečevo and 600 donated chocolates for Severina and Igor would spring to mind. A wise or misguided move, it is not for us to judge. We only know that CSR is much more than those unfortunate chocolates. CSR includes sponsorships and donations as well as care for the environment, employees, the local community, sustainability. And CSR is at its peak when the company’s top management, together with employees, activates ‘in action’. But no, that does not necessarily mean taking a broom or shovel in hand and posing for a media photo to send a message about how the company (hierarchically harmoniously) is aware of its social responsibility. Action means acting in harmony from top to bottom. Always. Even when the spotlight is turned off.

In Croatia, there is no shortage of such (mostly larger) companies, many of which have been cited as exemplary in various reports for years, and 20 of them once ended up in the book ‘Collection of Case Studies on Socially Responsible Business’ – from Avon, Erste Bank, Hartmann, Hauska&Partner, Holcim, JGL to King ICT, Končar, Konzum, PBZ, Vetropack Straža.

Important School

Among the socially conscious companies, Vipnet has always ranked high, which used the celebration of 15 years in business to launch a comprehensive corporate social responsibility program aptly named ‘Do the Right Thing’. As part of this right thing, activities are continuously (not just one-off and occasional) carried out in several different areas – environmental protection and green business, education, and corporate volunteering.

– Vipnet employees have embraced the program excellently and actively participated in it, and the numbers speak for themselves, over 20 percent of employees participated in the program, more than 1,600 volunteer hours were completed on various activities, such as working with children, cleaning the environment, working with the elderly and disabled, and digital literacy. For its corporate volunteering program, Vipnet won international recognition last year, the Silver Stevie Award. As part of this program, a project was also launched to arrange and equip city swimming areas, so in two years, the company equipped and arranged freshwater swimming areas in eight cities and four counties – they explain at Vipnet.

They add that they are also the largest private donor for demining in Croatia, having allocated millions of kuna so far, which has helped de-mine almost one and a half million square meters of land. They consider their socially responsible role in education particularly important. To facilitate the transition of young people from the education system to the world of work and encourage positive employment trends, they launched a one-year paid program ‘Vip alumni’. The goal? Professional and personal development of young professionals and gaining their first work experience (the one without which no one will even look at them in job applications). During the year-long Vip alumni program, participants gained valuable work experience through mentoring with company managers and executives, professional training, involvement in corporate projects, and exchanges within the Telekom Austria Group.

– Year after year, we are enhancing human resource management practices to build a work environment in which employees can realize their full potential. We are one of the first companies in Croatia to be awarded the MAMFORCE certificate, recognition for family-conscious companies that enable their employees to balance work and private life, with equal opportunities for career development – they conclude at the company.

Revived Quarries

The Holcim Group has long sought to balance economic growth, environmental protection, and social responsibility with its business decisions. Active involvement in the life of the local community is one of the six areas that Holcim has set within its social responsibility.

– The production of cement and aggregates depends on the long-term availability of raw materials in quarries. Therefore, we carefully and long-term plan every phase in the management and use of raw materials. Including revitalization, which is already being planned while the quarries are still operating, and financial resources are being planned to ensure the realization of revitalization. For example, a few months after we purchased the quarry in Očura, we began the revitalization of part of the quarry that was no longer used in the production process, and together with employees, we planted more than a thousand black pine trees on several levels. Given that there are no black pines around the quarry, and Holcim promotes biodiversity worldwide, the idea was born to set up a test. Of course, in a professional manner. We have been collaborating on such projects with the Forestry Institute from Jastrebarsko since autumn 2007 – they say at the company.

It seems that awareness of social responsibility somehow grows most easily in companies owned by foreign capital (perhaps because they are not burdened by survival concerns).

Culture of Equality

Thus, for example, at Vetropack Straža, all employees of the company personally believe in the philosophy that habits related to proper environmental relationships are acquired from a young age, and they are then actively involved in projects aimed at children, such as the project ‘Glass, Our Friend’. The company is also characterized by a culture of equality and active engagement of all employees, so all hierarchical levels and functions are included in the human resource development process. In this way, they say, they show that people are the foundation of sustainable future development. What connects all such responsible companies and their action in action is the abandonment of rigid hierarchical structures, belief in all employees, no matter where (positionally) they are, and encouragement to take initiative. Again, not necessarily and not only in the style of ‘shovel in hand’.