Corporate and Social Responsibility

For this discussion post I have selected the McCormick & Company as the high-profile organization to review their CSR report. The McCormick & Company is an American company that manufactures spices, seasonings and condiments to name a few. This is the link to their 2021 CSR report, https://mccormick.widen.net/s/x5bmvpfgc7/2021_plp_report (Links to an external site.). The beginning of the report evaluates the business overview. There is a letter to the stakeholders as well as an overview about the report and the McCormick & Company business. This CSR report is used to communicate the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts along with the impact on the environment as well as the community (Cote, 2021). These letters demonstrate a transparency from the organization’s CEO to the stakeholders. McCormick & Company use an open, honest, and direct approach when explaining their 2021 CSR report. One part of this transparency is also the authenticity of the report. This is done in the report when McCormick & Company acknowledges their shortcomings because of the pandemic but admittedly explains to their stakeholders how they will need to increase efforts to achieve their environmental goals.

An important part of the CSR report is the section that addresses the sustainability goals. This is the part of the report that communicates environmental goals and standards. Many times throughout their CSR report McCormick & Company mentions increasing efforts to achieve 1.5 degree C of limiting their overall warming by 2030 and be NetZero by 2050. This comes in addition to their 15 other laid out goals they have been working towards. Each 15 of these goals outlined in the “Goals” section of the CSR report also includes a targeted performance summary where the organization explains previous efforts and how they will continue with these efforts to reach each goal. Specifically, McCormick & Company outlines how their 2025 goal of using palm oil to be sustainably sourced through the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil was actually reached five years sooner than they previously projected. RiskRate is the third-party company mentioned within their report that explains to the stakeholders the connection between their goals and the research being done to ensure that the goals are met. The RiskRate company keeps McCormick & Company in compliance with legal efforts, audits and ethics. Within the report, McCormick outlines their grown for good framework which outlines how the company plans to improve upon their CSR goals. This outline is a visual to show stakeholders the company’s impact, the outcome of those goals along with how that tie into their commitment to the community. The goals are also broken down by commitments, their overall 2025 goal, and the progress from the 2020 and 2021 years. Another level of transparency McCormick & Company uses is in the section regarding indices and data.

In terms of this report and my impression of their commitment, action, and transparency I believe McCormick & Company displays a great deal of commitment and transparency. They outline these two things by the actions they have taken towards goals they have set. The CSR report outlines verbally and visually the progress the company has made as well as demonstrating factual data that explains how they will progress towards these goals. One reason this is all important is because by releasing this report McCormick & Company are holding themselves accountable which is another element of corporate social responsibility. One recommendation I would make to improve in the sustainability and CSR work is by putting the goals and purpose lead performance pages more towards the beginning of the report. Doing this will help set a better focus for the stakeholders by stating the purpose and building upon the business from there (Cote, 2021).

References

2021_PLP_Report.PDF. File Not Found. (n.d.). https://mccormick.widen.net/s/x5bmvpfgc7/2021_plp_report

Cote, C. (2021, April 20). What is a CSR report & why is it important? (Links to an external site.) Harvard Business School Online. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-a-csr-report

Hammond, S. C., & Christensen, L. J. (2016). Corporate & social responsibility: Road map for a sustainable future. Zovio.

-In your replies to colleagues, provide one to two additional insights or counterpoints on your assessment of the report reviewed by your peer, or additional suggestions for improvement the company evaluated could make in its sustainability and CSR reporting.