Next week will be our one-year anniversary! We have been lucky enough to help several great businesses this past year and we are very excited for the future as we are developing new ways for businesses to become better corporate citizens.

At this time though, we wanted to share all 24 articles we have shared over the past year. We are very proud to share these with you and hope you can use them as resources. We've categorized them for you in three columns below: 

• CSR 101 - defining CSR, why it's important, and how to make it a part of your strategy.
  
• CSR Analysis - sharing of existing initiatives, business cases for CSR, and examining trends.
• Craft Beer - focusing specifically on CSR in the craft brewing industry and its initiatives.

Terminology around corporate social responsibility (CSR) varies and can make the subject a bit complicated. Our goal here is to set common definitions and identify key terms.

Corporate social responsibility is the obligation of an organization to minimize negative impacts and maximize positive impacts on its stakeholders, including its environment, resulting in long-term acquisition of resources (materials and people) for future financial success.

CSR is demonstrated by businesses through three channels of interactions that affects each of its resources:

• Environmental sustainability – This is your b​usiness​’s impact on its natural surroundings and materials it uses. The goal of sustainability practices is to limit your b​usiness​’s imprint on the earth by creating more efficient processes to limit resources needed or finding ways to replenish.
• Community engagement – This is your b​usiness​’s impact on the community. Think of your interactions with the community such as paying taxes, fulfilling a demand and donating to charity. These could also be negative impacts like using child labor or over-serving alcohol to customers. The goal of community engagement is to operate legally, be ethical, and interact positively with you community. Examples of community engagement practices are education, services, corporate giving, corporate philanthropy and volunteering.
• Employee engagement – This is your business's impact on the people in the organization. Typically these are human resource issues like turnover, low engagement and difficulty in hiring quality talent. The goal of employee engagement is to motivate and retain your team by connecting them to the positive impact your business​ makes in the community. Examples are volunteer programs, employee donation matching programs, or joining a board of directors for a charity.