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Crowdsourcing solutions for corporate social responsibility challenges

10/6/2015

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Occasionally your business gets in a bit of a rut. New ideas might be hard to come by. Perhaps any new ideas that do come through just do not work. At these times an outsider, usually a consulting firm, comes in to help. Well, has your business ever tried crowdsource the problem?
Reaching out to the masses and soliciting their support is another option that organizations have utilized more and more the last few years. Crowdsourcing helps a company solve some of its biggest issues. Crowdsourcing gives opportunities to other businesses in a different industry to contribute as well as creative individuals to bring alternative ideas.

Crowdsourcing

"the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers."
Merriam-Webster
​First, the Carlsberg Group​ is looking for ideas to improve its environmental impact with its "Cheers to Green Ideas" campaign. The initiative is looking for solutions to in three high-impact areas: eco-friendly packaging, recycling, and less water & energy consumption when brewing.
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Image credit: Carlsberg/Sustainia

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Guest Article | Goose Island "Grit & Grain" Premiere

10/5/2015

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 During the Great American Beer Fest two weeks ago, we attended an event hosted by Goose Island Beer Co. where they premiered their film "Grit & Grain." The film shares the story about how their well-known Bourbon County Stout is made - from the cutting down of white oak trees in the Ozarks to make the bourbon barrels all the way to the tasting the finished product.

Although not a significant amount of the story involves sustainability practices, the film does show two important aspects to the process:
  • How the forests are properly managed by the forestry companies to keep the forest growing, not diminishing.
  • The repurpose use of the bourbon barrels for beer. Bourbon barrels may only be used one time, according to the definition and practice of making bourbon. Bourbon County Stout adds a second-life for the barrels.

​Please check out our review of the event and movie on PorchDrinking.com.

To see the movie, Goose Island is releasing the film in nine chapters every Friday on YouTube. The first two chapters are out now and catch watch in the player below.
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CSR Chronicles: Year 1 Collection

9/23/2015

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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.

CSR 101


CSR Analysis


Craft Beer

  • "What is CSR?" - 9/2/2015
  • "The business benefits of working with charity" - 2/25/2015
  • "Five steps for starting or reorganizing your corporate social responsibility" - 4/9/2015
  • "How strategic is your corporate social responsibility?" - Five part series - 10/15/2014
  • "What does it take to make a good corporate - nonprofit relationship?" - 4/29/2015
  • "Corporate social responsibility is necessary for all businesses, big and small" 9/30/2014
  • "Creating shared-value: A craft brewery fundraiser case study" - 6/24/2015
  • "Confluence business cases" - 6/10/2015
  • "Corporate giving programs across the US - How is each state doing?" - 10/8/2014
  • "Crossing The Line: When charity stops being charity" - 3/31/2015
  • "Practices from 5 of the Top Private Businesses in Colorado" - 12/17/2014
  • "4 Worst Companies to Work for in 2014" - 2/4/2015
  • "AmazonSmile - A Different Strategy & A Different Impact" - 1/21/2015
  • "CSR Trends for 2015" - 12/31/2014
  • "How to prepare your business for Colorado Gives Day?" - 11/26/14

  • "Colorado Craft Breweries - How well do they do in promoting their community efforts and why does promoting them matter?" - 10/29/2014
  • "Community Involvement: What are craft breweries doing?" - 12/10/2014
  • "Sustainability on the new Breckenridge Brewery campus" - 7/22/2015
  • "10 Creative Ways Craft Beer Is Improving Its Environmental Friendliness" - 4/22/2015
  • "10 Creative Ways Craft Beer is Giving Back" - 3/5/2015
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What is corporate social responsibility (CSR)?

9/2/2015

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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.

Our Definition

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.

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Guest Article | Sustainability on the New Breckenridge Brewery Campus

7/22/2015

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In June, Breckenridge Brewery opened a new twelve-acre campus in Littleton, Colorado, becoming their main headquarters. A few weeks later, we were able to get an exclusive tour and interview with Todd Usry, Brewmaster and Director of Brewery Operations.

Todd showed us a number of sustainability designs and practices in the new facility. See picture of the new brewery and learn more about the sustainability initiatives in our article posted on PorchDrinking.com.

Read the article here: http://goo.gl/sv0RHE
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Confluence Ltd. 
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