Public Relations: Comment - Flavour of the month is here to stay as CSR takes firm hold in PR

CSR, the flavour of the month and everybody's favourite acronym, has officially arrived and the signs are it's here to stay. Long part of company mission statements and de riguer for corporations and enterprises wishing to present themselves as a 'we care' organisation, CSR now represents much more than a simple statement of intent. For instance, that 73 per cent of top European business leaders believe that sustained social/environmental engagement can significantly improve profitability (Business in the community's FastForward Research 2002) and that 27 per cent of consumers across 25 countries have punished companies for being socially irresponsible, while another 21per cent have considered doing so (Environics International's annual CSR monitor). Perhaps most telling of all is this from Work Foundation - 'Eighty per cent of employees would not work for an organisation with values they didn't believe in'.