Finding 5 : Companies are becoming more proactive on their own sustainability issues .
The potential of linking Corporate Citizenship with internal sustainability efforts is increasingly recognised by companies but fully exploited in only a few cases .
For a long time , Corporate Citizenship lacked direction . It was limited to offering support to organisations , for example because decision-makers considered them worthy of support based on personal judgement . Results of our study and the conversations we had with clients show that this is slowly changing . 75 percent of DAX companies now involve themselves in areas that are material to the social and environmental sustainability of their business .
In order to gauge the extent of this ‘ materiality ’ in relation to sustainability issues , two questions must be answered :
1 . What is the company ’ s impact on society ? This can be negative in nature , such as emissions of pollutants . It can also be positive , such as an increase in mobility or public health thanks to the company ’ s products .
2 . What impact do societal challenges have on the company ? For example , a poor education system restricts the availability of skilled labour and an absence of the rule of law threatens the security of investments .
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