CSR for Entrepreneurs

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Âť CSR for Entrepreneurs ÂŤ

A handbook for innovative start-ups, committed SMEs and driven intrapreneurs.

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How to use this handbook

Theory, tools and cases

From theory to implementation To give you the most practical lowdown on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for your business, we have divided all implementation parts of this handbook into three areas. For each of the five steps to success, there are sections on theoretical background, tools, as well as examples from our fictitious case study. This is supplemented by a number of real-life examples from Namibian companies at the end of the booklet.

Theoretical background Although we obviously want to assist you in getting things done, a certain degree of theoretical background on CSR concepts will make implementation of your CSR efforts much easier. We introduce you to the reasoning behind the steps in the implementation cycle and what’s to be kept in mind.

apply favourites from our extensive toolbox.

Apply them and you will be through the first step of the implementation cycle in no time.

They will certainly help you to run all aspects of your business more successfully.

Our case study: Helena’s Corner Grocery To illustrate what we mean in theory and how to apply the tools in practice, we have invented »Helena’s Corner Grocery«, our dream business that combines financial success with social progress, while at the same time going green on all fronts. Meet smart business owner Helena Shilongo and check out how she creates her very own sustainable enterprise, which is fast becoming the talk of the town in Katutura.

Implementation tools There are hundreds of tools out there to get your CSR initiatives off the ground. We introduce you to the most helpful, easy-to2

CSR for Entrepreneurs

Creative Commons This handbook may be reproduced for educational and non-commercial purposes provided the source is acknowledged.

Welcome Being a responsible business that has a positive impact on the community is no longer a do-good exercise for big corporates with deep pockets. We have designed this handbook for smart entrepreneurs to show you how to build a thriving business around sustainable practices. Making sure your employees are happy, your products are environmentally friendly, and your customers are satisfied all add to you becoming an envied and successful player in the marketplace; someone who is here to stay. Corporate Social Responsibility is about seeing opportunities first and about developing new products that people really need. It’s about thinking outside the box.

It’s about making money, not giving away money. It’s simply good business.

Accept Responsibility Talk Your Walk

Think Long-Term

Walk the Talk

>> The implementation cycle

Contents 05

CSR in a Nutshell

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Implementation Cycle: 5 Steps to Success

The journey begins here. Ahoy!

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Contributors: GIZ & GCNN for sustainability This handbook is brought to you by the Global Compact Network Namibia (GCNN), Namibia’s premier sustainability and CSR hub, with support from the German Government via the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Please feel free to share it with fellow entrepreneurs and CSR practitioners.

Know Your Impact

1 Accept Responsibility 2 Know Your Impact 3 Think Long-Term 4 Walk the Talk 5 Talk Your Walk

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Local Case Studies

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Info Corner

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Editorial

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CSR in a nutshell

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What, how and why

CSR in a nutshell

What is CSR? Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is about two things: A) what you do with your profits, and B) how you make your profits.

CSR is therefore not only about charity, and it is definitely more than just complying with Namibia’s labour or environmental laws.

The concept refers to how companies (both big and small) manage their financial, social and environmental impact and relationships with workers, customers, suppliers, communities and Government.

You might have noticed that the term »CSR« is often used interchangeably with sustainability, corporate citizenship, social enterprise and triple bottom line. Though these terms are different, they all point in the same direction: throughout the world there has been a sharp increase in the social roles businesses are expected to play in order to support Government in the development of the country.

In Namibia, this means that the private sector is expected to contribute and play a key role in achieving Vision 2030. It is not up to Government alone to solve our developmental challenges, we have to develop smart partnerships with Government, civil

society and competitors alike to make our country a better place for all.

Why CSR? Businesses do not operate independently from their surroundings. Each company has an impact on the society and the environment (think of pollution, or dangerous goods) and each society has an impact on the company (think of HIV/Aids, poverty and unemployment).

In other words, businesses influence their surroundings in negative and positive ways and, at the same time, they are also influenced by the community they operate in.

That means, if you want to run a successful business, you need to know your impact and develop mitigation strategies – that is what we call CSR.

CSR = Maximise your positive impacts + Minimise your negative impacts However, being a responsible company does in no way mean neglecting the busi-

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The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest CSR network.

Find out more: www.unglobalcompact.org

ness purpose of making profits. It is important that social or environmental initiatives result in a win-win situation, i.e., where the business benefits AND the society or environment benefits.

These are typically your employee wellness and training, community education or HIV/ AIDS projects. Developing products from recycled materials is an example how companies increase environmental benefits while at the same time creating innovative new products.

Consider the graph below: sustainable value is only created where society and business benefit equally. If only society benefits, then you are engaging in charitable projects, for example cash or in-kind donations without any expected returns. Vice versa, your highly branded sponsorships are Public Relations (PR) exercises, and important as these (golf) days may be, they have a limited positive impact on the wider society.

Helena’s Corner Grocery To illustrate the theory and tools presented in this handbook we have invented a fictitious start-up company »Helena’s Corner Grocery«.

Helena’s grocery store is based in Katutura.

The owner of the shop is Mrs Helena Shilongo, who started her business two years ago with only a few products in her shop. These were mainly staples such as mahangu, margerine, milk and chicken. As more and more customers visited her shop, she added toiletries, detergents and more food products to her product range.

>> Value creation with CSR Added social benefit

Charity

Sustainable Value Creation with CSR

Compliance with legal obligations

PR Added business benefit

Helena’s business is doing well. She has enough money to provide for her family and she can even send all four of her children to school. She has two employees, Joseph and Pandu, and is planning to open another shop in Wanaheda. Helena has a passion for business and her community. Let’s go with her on her sustainable business journey.

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Implementation cycle

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Implementation cycle

5 steps to success

The 5 steps

2 - Know your impact

When embarking on a path of making your business more sustainable in an environmental, social and economic way, we suggest you follow five steps. How you want to approach each of these steps depends on your business and your preferences. On the following pages you will find ample inspiration. However, we suggest you do the journey one step at a time.

To improve what you do as a business, you first have to find out both the positive and the negative impacts your operations (can) have on society and the environment.

Knowing all these will enable you to plan the right activities in the next step.

Accept Responsibility Talk Your Walk

Know Your Impact

3 - Think long-term What direction will your CSR efforts take?

It’s wise to think about your CSR vision and mission and draw up a plan for whatever you intend to do. Become part of a recycling scheme, launch a green product, do a staff volunteering day.

4 - Walk the talk Walk the Talk

Think Long-Term

>> The implementation cycle

1 - Accept responsibility First of all, it is important to accept the responsibility you have as a business - responsibility for your employees, your community and the environment. Make sure everybody in your business knows what you stand for and that the entire team works together to make your CSR activities happen. This way, it will be much more fun and you will reach your goals much faster.

Now that all the rough planning is done, you can finally get going and implement your projects. Decide what exactly you want to do, by when it’s supposed to be done, how much money is available for it, and of course, who is responsible? Get your employees on board too, so they can be part of this new era for the company from day 1.

5 - Talk your walk Congratulation! Your first CSR initiative was a great success. Don’t be afraid to talk about it. It will make your employees proud and convince customers to come back for more of your products or services. Lastly, it will leave your competitors green with envy.

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Implementation cycle

1 - Accept responsibility

Theoretical background Did you know that… ... by 2050 Namibia’s population will have doubled since 2000 - which means that we will fight over natural resources like water, and that food security will be at stake. ... every third Namibian lives on only US$1 per day. More than 50% of Namibians are unemployed. ... it is very likely that one of your employees is HIV-positive and needs special support. 13% of Namibians are HIV-positive. ... the Global Greenhouse Gas emission mitigation actions pledged by countries in the Cancún Agreements at the United Nations Climate Change Conference will not be enough to prevent the global average temperature from exceeding the 2°C threshold.

The signing countries are more in line with a 3°C increase. ... globally, terrestrial biodiversity is projected to decrease by a further 10%, with significant losses in Asia, Europe and Southern Africa.

These and many more national and global challenges are making it increasingly difficult for companies to continue growing while claiming their right to operate. Governments and societies are demanding that businesses start to account for their impact.

Managers and entrepreneurs alike need to rethink business models as well as products, technologies and processes.

It’s up to you to ignore the challenges that Namibia faces, or to accept the responsibility you have as a business person. This of course doesn’t mean that you will have to take on the challenges all by yourself and fight a lonely battle. If every company keeps its own house in order and tries to become more sustainable, we’ve achieved a lot. For those that do it right, there is a world of business opportunities out there!

By publicly announcing your commitment to keeping the environment and the people in your community in mind when making business decisions you will create a lot of goodwill from customers and employees. At the same time, they will of course also start to monitor whether you practice what you preach. This in turn will keep you and your team going to implement activities to become the good business you commit to be.

After all, who wants to be associated with exploiting people, polluting the environment and supporting corruption?

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Implementation cycle

1 - Accept responsibility

Commit to the outside Here are some practical activities you might want to consider to get started:

Implementation tools So, how can you act? Start by accepting responsibility for your impacts. As a business owner, you should lead the process by committing the company and its resources to adhering to sustainability practices as a core component of your business strategy.

That means, as a very basic step, you can commit to recycling, saving energy and water, anti-corruption, fair labour practices and respecting human rights.

Become a Global Compact member As an advanced step, you can become a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact at www.unglobalcompact.org In doing so, you commit to the organisation’s philosophy and the 10 principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. To prove your commitment you would have to submit an annual Communication on Progress (CoP), i.e., writing a report on your CSR activities.

If you prefer a more local approach towards the Global Compact, you can join the Global Compact Network Namibia via their website at www.globalcompactnamibia.org and get the opportunity to network with and learn from other businesses active in CSR.

Put up a poster: Activate your creative self and design a poster that tells everyone what your company stands for. Fill it with your CSR promise or your company values, or draw a picture that shows your company and how it contributes to a better community and environment for all.

Make an announcement: If you like it a bit more formal, put your commitment in a few wellformulated sentences. You can use those as first content for a section on sustainability on your website. And why not post the commitment on your Facebook page together with a fitting picture?

Let your products speak: There’s a lot of printed matter you produce all the time. Use all those labels and flyers and business cards to renew your commitment again and again. Just include something along the lines of »Committed to Sustainability« on packages, on the bottom of letters and in your email signature to reach a high number of people out there.

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Global Compact Network Namibia Become a member of the GCNN. It’s free! www.globalcompactnamibia.org

Helena’s Corner Grocery

Commit to the inside Do a staff event: Launch your green commitment with a staff event. Invite your employees for a nice lunch at the local café and explain to them what CSR means for your company and how each staff member can contribute. Get them excited about it.

In the mug: Order a bunch of Namibian-made mugs for your employees from the local pottery shop. Have your CSR commitment inscribed on the mug to remind the team of the common journey at all times.

One evening, Helena invites some friends to her house for a dinner.

She serves a very nice menu and her friends and children are delighted.

One of them expresses his gratitude by saying that a lot of neighbours are not so lucky to have such a great friend. This makes Helena think. She had worked hard to built the business, but wasn’t she also kind of lucky to have been able to finish school and to get a place at the VTCs? That’s why she decides to look for possibilities to let less fortunate people benefit from her business too.

Identify champions: Identify CSR champions amongst your staff members and encourage them to come up with new ideas. They can also help you to implement your activities once you have a clear plan.

Some examples of things you can commit to as a business: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Building a prosperous community.

Promoting local trade.

Employee well-being.

Caring for the environment.

Good governance principles.

Providing safe products.

She creates a poster that reads »Let’s be sustainable!« and puts it up in the office for everyone to see. She also talks to her employees and business partners about it. She explains to them what sustainable and responsible business means and tries to motivate them to support her. She invites them to think about projects to implement.

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Implementation cycle

2 - Know your impact

Source from the crowd!

Theoretical background As a business you are not acting in isolation.

Everything you do has an impact on other people, be it your suppliers that depend on you, the customers you provide products to, or the people from your community that you employ. All those are referred to as your stakeholders, people or groups that are affected by what you do.

Your impact on those relationships can be positive or negative. As a responsible business you want to make sure you maximise the benefits these people have from your business operations, while minimising the negative effects. Don’t forget, your business is equally shaped by your stakeholders’ actions. If they don’t agree with how you conduct business and work against you, you will have a hard time making your company a success story.

Identifying and engaging relevant stakeholders is a challenge faced by many companies, from small enterprises to large corporations. Knowing your stakeholders and managing your relationship with them is critical for the credibility and growth of your business activities. To develop meaningful CSR projects, you need to be aware of your impact on stakeholders.

As a smart entrepreneur you obviously see your stakeholders as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Often they are the ones that provide you with much better ideas than those that you come up with by yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask them questions in person or via your Facebook page.

Some easy steps you can follow Step 1: Identify your stakeholders Think of your stakeholders in terms of workforce, market, community and Government.

The environment is considered a stakeholder too, as your business depends on it.

Ask yourself one simple question: Whose lives do we touch through our operations or our products, now or in future?

Here is a list of some possible stakeholders: Workforce

Management, full-time staff, temporary staff, interns, students

Market

Current and future clients, suppliers, investors, competitors

Community

Families of employees, neighbourhood, media, NGOs

Government

Educational institutions, ministries, public infrastructure

Environment

Wildlife, water, air, soil, natural resources

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Shareholders vs. stakeholders A shareholder owns parts of a company, while a stakeholder has an interest in the company. Stakeholders are always more.

Step 2: Rank stakeholders As you will find out that you have a large number of stakeholders, you will not be able to give equal attention to each of them.

It’s important to identify the most relevant stakeholders. Which of the above stakeholders do you have to greatest responsibility towards? How dependent are they on your business or your products? Are they directly or indirectly impacted by your business and, in turn, how interested are they in what you do? In general, you have to find those stakeholders that you have the strongest impact on, as well as those that have the strongest impact on you.

Step 3: Capture your negative and positive impacts on stakeholders Here you need to do some brainstorming with your team or ask stakeholders directly.

Develop a table and then list all the good things you do. For example, as a business you create employment for people, you provide great products that make life easier and you are an active part of the local community.

In addition to the shiny side of the business, also be honest about all the not-so-good impacts. Those are the things we like to ignore and sweep under the carpet, like the excessive amounts of water you use in production, the pollution it creates to transport your goods, and the unhealthy ingredients

in your products that might cause obesity, addictions or even worse.

Step 4: Identify ways to increase positive and decrease negative impacts Now comes the most exciting part of the exercise. Once you know your stakeholders, their importance and the impacts you have with your business, you can earmark the most promising areas of action you want to tackle first.

Look at your positive effects and choose those, which you are most proud of and which have the highest impact. Talk about these successes and make sure more and more stakeholder can benefit in future.

Plus, don’t forget the potential positive effects you can have in future with new ideas, products and processes.

On the other hand, you need to identify the most damaging negative impacts to develop strategies to minimise or, even better, eliminate them. Otherwise they will haunt you later when you least expect it.

4 steps to »know your impact« 1.

2.

3.

4.

Identify your stakeholders Rank your stakeholders Capture your negative and positive impacts on stakeholders Identify ways to increase positive and decrease negative impacts 15

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Implementation tools Don’t be scared! When it comes to engaging with your stakeholders to identify impacts you will most likely encounter some frustrated people that don’t like your business or its products. Be open to their suggestions and ideas, because you will only be able to become a more responsible business if you have people that are honest and tell you what they think. So, enjoy the good stories, but listen carefully when people approach you with criticism or new ideas. It might be an opportunity to create a new, better product or improved customer experience.

holders, namely your employees themselves, then move on to capture other market-related stakeholders, then the community, etc. It will help to have a flip-chart at hand and ask someone to write down all stakeholders in a list as you discuss.

Before you talk about impacts on or by stakeholders, you have to get to grips with who your stakeholders are. Here are some simple tools to help you:

Read the local papers: There might be people that have an interest in your business or feel affected by it, which you and your team are unaware of. It doesn’t even need to be connected to your particular company but could relate to your industry in general.

For example, if an NGO expresses concerns about overfishing off the Namibian cost and you happen to be in the fishing industry, you should take this NGO very serious as a stakeholder. By reading the papers and regularly checking the Internet you can monitor who says what about either you or your area of business. Make sure you include those people or organisations in your list of stakeholders immediately.

Do a team brainstorm: Your employees are working with suppliers, customers and authorities all the time. They all have different stakeholders they deal with on a regular basis. If you take the time to sit with your team, you will have a long list in no time. To structure the brainstorming, proceed group by group. First, capture internal stake-

Ask an industry expert: If you are lucky, you know someone with a lot of expertise in your area of business. Set up an informal meeting with that person to get his or her view on who is important as a stakeholder in the industry. If your network is not as established yet, you could also approach someone working at a local university in an area

Identify and rank your stakeholders

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Good and honest American apparel brand Patagonia is open about its successes as well as problems: www.patagonia.com/us/footprint

related to your business. If you want to open a guesthouse, why not talk to a lecturer at a Hospitality School? There might even be research that you can tap into.

Create a power/interest grid: Once you have an exhaustive stakeholder list, you can locate all your stakeholders in a powerinterest grid. Prepare this like in the illustration below, then decide for each stakeholder what their interest in your company is. If they are easily affected by what you do, place them high on the interest axis. The second dimension, power, is determined by how heavily the same stakeholder can impact your company. This way you will end up with a great overview of your stakeholders.

Obviously, stakeholders with high power and high interest in your company should be your number one priority. >> Power-interest grid High Keep satisfied

Manage closely

Monitor

Keep informed

Power

Low Low

Interest

High

Positive and negative impacts Read, ask, talk, listen. You can’t know all the impacts you have with your business. That’s why you need to be open to suggestions from your stakeholders.

Examine your value chain: Think about it, even if you produce a very simple product, this involves many steps and processes. Imagine your business at the centre and what operations take place there. Then add all things that happen before. Where do your supplies come from, how are they being transported, etc? Afterwards, list all the actions that take place after a product leaves your company. How does it reach customers? What happens during use of the product? You’ll find that your value chain is quite complex, meaning that with one single product you can have quite an impact, both positive and negative. Be honest and list ALL these impacts on ALL the different stakeholders at ALL stages of the value chain.

Mark positive impacts with a green and negative ones with a red marker.

Read CSR reports: It’s never wrong to check out what your competition does. Even better if it’s not direct competition from companies that are far away. The discussion around CSR and the impact of companies on society, economy and the environment is a 17

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global one. Especially bigger companies from around the globe publish so-called CSR or Sustainability Reports on a regular basis.

They are a great source of inspiration for smaller businesses. One of the world’s largest collections of CSR reports can be found free of charge at the Corporate Register website at www.corporateregister.com Do an online survey: Once you know all your stakeholders, you can compile a short survey to find out what they think are the most important issues your company should look into. There are easy-to-use online tools that allow you to create your free online survey in no time. Use your company’s Facebook page for a simple poll or try Google Documents (docs.google.com) or Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com).

Capture information: Make sure you capture all information gathered in a comprehensive table that you can use for further action and to develop your CSR activities. Here is one suggestion for such a table: Social Impact

Stakeholder ...

+ ...

Ecological Economic Impact Impact

...

+ ...

...

+ ...

...

Helena’s Corner Grocery Helena wants to know if her business has any negative impacts on her stakeholders.

Thinking about the business she is in, she decides that her most important stakeholders are her employees, the local community and the environment. For each she lists the positive and the negative impacts her grocery store might have. She is surprised about the many good and bad things she discovers during her interviews

with her customers. On the negative side is the fact that she sells cigarettes and alcohol. This might increase addiction and alcoholism and create problems in the community. Plus, she does not recycle her waste, which then goes to landfill. On the other hand, selling basic products at reasonable prices right where people live is a positive attribute of her business. She also provides a job for Joseph and Pandu.

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3 - Think long-term

Theoretical background Congratulations! By now, you should know your immediate impact on stakeholders.

That means you can start thinking about projects that mitigate the negative and enhance the positive effects: your very specific CSR projects that make sure your conduct does not compromise the well-being of current or future generations. This way, you will make sure that your business will be prosperous now and in the future. This is what we mean by thinking long-term.

In a world that is increasingly challenged by globalisation, resource scarcity, population growth, ecological decline, poverty and other challenges, you can play a vital role, even as a small business. All that it takes is to pick the worst and best impacts from your company assessment and make them your priority in whatever you do. >> Vision, mission & values Your future purpose

Mission Ways to achieve your vision

Values

A long-term sustainability vision represents your future purpose as a company, providing a mental picture of the existence that your business is working towards. Think about how Namibia can be enriched by your products and services in the future. As a further step, you should then think about your mission, which will state how you intend to achieve your vision. Plus, think about values that guide you along the way.

Once your plan is ready and written, communicate it to your stakeholders, especially your employees, to show them what they can expect from you in future.

Is sustainability a burden?

Vision

Your guiding principles

Your CSR journey takes shape! Instead of committing to CSR and sustainability in general, you can now develop a more pronounced CSR plan, including vision and mission as well as values. Working together, your mission, vision and values can provide a powerful directional force to achieve a more sustainable way of doing business.

Many entrepreneurs and even large companies believe sustainability is a burden on bottom lines. Is that true? For example, saving energy can lower your costs, and selling products that people really need will increase your revenues – it’s all about taking the right actions.

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Implementation tools You need to set aside some time to think about and define your long-term sustainability vision, mission and actions. It will surely pay to take this time. It will make implementation of your actions much easier as everyone will know why you’ve come up with them in the first place and what they will contribute to the business itself. If you take it step by step, it will be done quicker than you think.

Define your values First of all, make sure you know what your company's values are. They will tell everyone in your team how to behave when doing business.

Distill personal values: An organisation is not an abstract entity but one that is defined and redefined by the people working for it on a daily basis. Especially in a small team like yours, the corporate culture and values that your business as a whole stands for, and is guided by, are determined by its people.

Search the web for a list of values and hand it to each of your employees. Tell them to (anonymously) tick the five most important ones for them and hand it back to you. Com-

bine them into a list with those values ticked most often on top. Once that is done, invite your employees for a discussion to see if everyone can agree to these top 5 values as values for the company.

Double-check values: Now that your team had its say, make sure the values identified go well with what you personally believe your business should be guided by.

The new company values should never clash with your own values, because you as the boss will have to champion these values and make sure everyone adheres to them at all times. Plus, when thinking about your commitment to sustainability that started this whole process, your values should of course go well with your good business journey.

Once satisfied, communicate your five or six company values to all stakeholders, especially employees.

State your vision For your vision, imagine all the good about your company and try to combine it into one catchy sentence. If you think you can achieve the most for the world by focusing on going green, that’ll be part of your vision.

If your stakeholder analysis has shown a beneficial social impact to be your strong point, let your vision mirror that. Remember, you have a lot of input to base your vision on already!

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National Development Plan NDP4 Namibia’s latest NDP provides great input and ideas for your vision and mission: www.npc.gov.na

Do the count: From your stakeholder analysis you have a long list of possible negative and positive impacts sorted into social, ecological and economic categories. Revisit that list and find out which of the three areas features the most entries. If people have a lot to say about your role regarding the environment, this could be a focus in your vision. If there are equal amounts of comments in two or all three areas, your vision can mirror that, too.

Be inspired by Vision 2030: To get further inspiration beyond your stakeholder analysis, find out what your country’s national vision is.

Let’s see what Namibia’s Vision 2030 has to say on social upliftment, the environment and/or economic development. You find the Vision as well as the National Development Plans (NDP) at www.npc.gov.na

A good vision statement meets the following criteria: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Gives a picture of future purpose.

Acts as a strategic guide.

Activates imagination.

Shows something desirable.

Allows flexibility.

Is easy to communicate.

Think positive, and only positive: Now, with all the information gathered and direction given, try to think only in the most positive terms about your business. Even if stakeholders mainly mentioned negative things about you, think in reverse and find a way to turn your bad impacts into something positive. Formulate your vision to tell everyone the good you aspire to do.

It could sound like this: »The vision of Company XYZ is to play a significant role in preserving Namibia’s natural resources through our production and products.« or »Our vision is to make a positive contribution to employment and social upliftment for the Namibian people.«

Decide on your mission Decide what’s key to work towards that vision. Think small steps. A vision is there to inspire, not to be made reality tomorrow.

Your mission statement(s) will constantly remind you of your areas of engagement to become more sustainable.

Revisit your stakeholder analysis: You can choose whether you’d like to have one mission statement that combines all your focus areas or whether you want several short statements with one focus area each. In any 21

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case, your mission should focus on what you can do best and with most impact. If your vision is around social impact, have a look at this section of your stakeholder analysis table and, together with your team, pick the most promising areas. For example, to decrease unemployment, you can of course employ more people yourself. But maybe you can also encourage other entrepreneurs to use your products to create a business for themselves.

To finalise, mould all focus areas into your mission. Here are two examples that go with the vision statements on the previous page: »Our mission is to reduce consumption of water and electricity in our operations, while at the same time providing products that can be fully recycled by customers.« or »We provide affordable products for everyday Namibians via a network of selfemployed sales people that bring our products closer to the people.« Compare to peers: When you and your team are satisfied with the mission and you feel that it goes well with and helps you to achieve your vision, check what other companies in your area have come up with. Just make sure your CSR vision and mission didn’t ignore something very important of relevance to the industry.

Add actions To make your mission a meaningful one, it has to be accompanied by some real-world action. Take a look at your mission statement(s) and find out what you can do on the ground to make sure you really follow your mission.

Think outside the box: Now comes the creative part. There are numerous ways to make your mission work. Of all the hundreds of projects you can possibly conceive, you want those that have the biggest impact at the lowest cost. Even better, you want those that make money. Be innovative in your approach and don’t think along old lines and norms. Business as usual won’t help an awful lot with today’s formidable challenges.

A very helpful way to think outside the box is to involve people from different areas of expertise. For example, if you want to reduce water consumption, don’t only talk to an engineer. Also consult a teacher, a sociologist and a chef. They might have completely new ideas. Be open to ideas from everyone. We especially tend to ignore young people, people with lower education or at lower job levels. However, those are potentially your most powerful sources of ideas because they deal with the nitty-gritty all the time and know how things work.

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Ideas from millions of experts Seattle-based café chain Starbucks gives its customers a say. With amazing success: mystarbucksidea.force.com

Do a World Café: For every focus area in your mission statement(s) try to identify one or two projects that you and your small team can implement over the next couple of months.

For this purpose, get a good mix of people together. Your employees should be involved, but you can also ask some good friends, a family member or experts you know. Invite all of them for a so-called World Café. >> World Café Guests Area 1 Area 3 Area 2 Area 4

Count your focus areas, for example water consumption, electricity consumption and recycling, and arrange as many tables in a room. Write each of your focus areas on a large piece of paper and put one on each table. Then distribute people among tables and ask them to come up with as many project ideas for the area as possible. Rotate after 15-20 minutes and repeat until everyone has worked on every area. Then review all project ideas and choose one or two very promising actions per topic.

Helena’s Corner Grocery Helena invites her two employees, her friend Karen, who bakes fresh bread for the store, and her cousin Dave, who transports products for her, to a brainstorming session about a possible vision for her shop. Karen has brought a copy of Vision 2030. They discuss for a long time before they decide on the following vision: »Helena’s Corner Grocery shops all around Katutura will create better lives for the communities they operate in.« Once that is settled, they think about where they can have the biggest impact. That’s why they decide the mission to be »We provide essential products to all inhabitants of Katutura, while creating job opportunities and a clean and pleasant environment for all.« Coming up with project ideas is easy now.

Helena wants to negotiate discounts with suppliers so she can offer lower prices. In addition, she wants to buy more from local companies and do a clean-up campaign.

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Implementation cycle

4 - Walk the talk

Theoretical background As an entrepreneur you have accepted responsibility for your business impacts. You have also defined a sustainability/CSR vision, your mission and activities. Now it’s time to implement your plans, because a strategy or a vision, even a great one, does not implement itself – you need to walk your CSR talk. Just in case you need some additional inspiration, here are a few suggestions for CSR activities listed per stakeholder group for easy reference:

Environment

   

Green products Water & energy efficiency Waste reduction Environment education

Employees

   

Better working conditions Improved work/life balance Creating a diverse team Staff volunteering

Community

   

Investments in infrastructure Education and training Job opportunities Affordable products

Market

   

Local sourcing Good supplier relations Anti-corruption Business alliances

You can start with identifying some shortterm and some longer-term goals to achieve the CSR vision. Remember, goals should be SMART, i.e., Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Reliable and Time-bound.

Implementation is a about seeking better ways to align day-to-day operations with your specific CSR activities. To do this, you also need to evaluate the ability of each process, person or department. For example, to help the environment you can look at the product development, procurement and sales process – and identify opportunities for CSR (waste management, client education, greener products, local sourcing).

Some entrepreneurs may find it useful to manage their products’ environmental footprint. Others may need to provide additional benefits for workers, or they may want to only work with suppliers that only employ workers who are of legal age.

During the implementation phase, it is important that your business engages and empowers employees and business partners to execute the CSR strategy and vision. As a leader, your »CSR mindset« needs to trickle down to all employees and into all the operational processes. You need to develop a set of cultural beliefs about the importance of sustainability to the company’s long-term success. This can be enhanced by developing codes of conduct for your stakeholders.

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Sustainability bucket list Simple CSR ideas from the Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production CSCP: www.spc-centre.org

Implementation tools Before you jump straight into implementation, you need to follow key project management steps for successful execution of your CSR turn-around strategy. Focus on a handful of projects you have identified to work towards your vision. Don’t overburden yourself with too much too soon.

No matter what you choose to do, it is important to understand that all activities follow five basic processes. Here we go:

CSR makes business sense!

It improves: 

     

Competitive advantage (product innovation, employee involvement and customer education) Cost reduction (e.g. energy, water and paper consumption) Relationship with unions, government, regulators Business reputation Ease of doing business in your community, city and country Staff and customer satisfaction Access to funds (investors)

Initiation: Use your CSR vision and mission to launch the first (few) project(s). If people understand how any given project helps to achieve you vision and mission, they have a sense of purpose and will be much more determined to make it happen. If you can’t drive the project yourself, pick one of your employees. Ask for volunteers among staff to find someone who is eager to work on your CSR project. Then communicate the launch of the project to the entire team so people know what’s going on and they can contribute according to their abilities.

Planning: You (or the project manager in charge) have to generate a plan for the project in terms of what exactly you want to do/ change, who is part of the process, what budget is available, what timeline you are working with, and what has to be achieved in the end. Think of it as an action plan. This can be a simple table with columns like task, responsible person, deadline and cost. Most importantly, all the people involved in the execution of the project will have to be part of the planning too. There’s nothing worse than other people making plans for you without actually asking first.

The project manager has to get the team together on a regular basis to discuss necessary steps and make sure everybody knows what to do and by when.

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Implementation cycle

4 - Walk the talk

Don’t forget to establish what basis you are starting from, by the way. If you want to increase the amount of packaging you recycle, you have to know your current recycling rate to have a comparison at project end.

Execution: This is the fun part! You roll up your sleeves, or »walk the talk«, and adjust your business so that you can reach your CSR vision.

As you progress with your first CSR project, you and your employees will see the impact bit by bit. That should keep you going throughout the implementation phase.

Make sure you acknowledge and celebrate these little successes.

Monitoring: This step is done in parallel to the other processes. It is where you are constantly checking to make sure whatever you do is in line with your original plan. If not, you will have to take action to get back on track.

Meet with the implementation team on a regular basis to monitor progress and define new tasks when others can be ticked off.

Once the project is fully implemented, a final evaluation is due. If you said you want to reduce your water consumption by 20% at the beginning of the project, you have to do the maths and find out if you did. Is your water bill really lower now than it was at project inception? Only then can you really

say whether or not the project was a success and contributed towards achieving your vision.

Closing: Time to celebrate! This is when you complete all the work, tally up the total bill and sit back and enjoy the fruits of your (and your team’s) hard work. Well done!

If you still feel you need additional help with implementation of your CSR activities, don’t despair. There are organisations to turn to for advice and guidance.

Namibia Business Innovation Centre (NBIC) For green product development and innovation management, look no further than NBIC. The centre can assist you with both product and business-related issues of your good business journey. www.nbic.org.na Global Compact Network Namibia (GCNN) The GCNN helps with CSR strategies for businesses of all sizes. As Namibia’s local network of the Global Compact, the GCNN experts can give you advice and/or organise a workshop for you. www.globalcompactnamibia.org

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CSR for advanced SMEs The UN Industrial Development Organisation supports SMEs in their CSR programmes: www.unido.org/reap

9 rules to make your CSR and sustainability projects work: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Plan properly! As Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, plans are useless, but planning is indispensible.

Manage your time! Make sure you get things started early so you don’t run into trouble later.

Communicate! Listen to people and be open to what they say. At the same time share your ideas with others to get feedback.

Don’t be afraid to ask! There are enough mentors and experts out there who are willing to share their ideas and help (free of charge).

Lead by example! It’s your business and you are responsible for its success. You will have to make it work.

Be determined! And ask others to do the same. Things will only happen if everyone pulls their weight.

Take small steps! Projects can seem overwhelming. Chop them up into smaller tasks for ease of mind.

Stay focused! Once you have decided on a project, stick to it and get it done. You can embark on more afterwards.

Make an exit if need be! Don’t try forever if you know your project won’t work. Rather start a new one.

Helena’s Corner Grocery Helena’s targets to offer lower prices while at the same time buying more products from local companies are a real challenge. To achieve both, she has to plan and monitor her activities carefully. The whole grocery team comes together to work out an action plan. Everyone takes over at least one task, including a time frame and a budget. They agree on meeting once a week to see how they progress. Pandu is going to find out who in the community or region might be capable of supplying them with products, while Helena renegotiates the wholesale prices.

After one month, they have found three more small businesses who can supply them with food products. The wholesalers have decreased their prices under the condition that Helena buys higher quantities. Since Helena has decided anyway to open up more shops, she accepts the deal and uses the additional products for a new shop.

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Implementation cycle

5 - Talk your walk

Theoretical background During the past decade, »CSR expectations« from governments, NGOs and consumers have been on the increase, putting business under pressure to perform, not only financially, but also socially and environmentally, to think about a Triple Bottom Line. Coupled with the technological impact, especially social media, it has become increasingly difficult for companies to hide their negative impacts, but also more easy to show their positive contributions.

It has come to a point where stakeholder don’t want to be informed only by polished press releases any more. Stakeholders today are seeking greater transparency, organisational accountability and good governance – and this trend isn’t just for big businesses but includes SMEs through the supply chain.

Therefore, business is shifting from:  the shareholder to the stakeholder  identifying to engaging with stakeholders  informing to reporting Communicating your CSR activities is key to your business success. Your customers want to know what you are doing. Consumers

expect goods and services to reflect socially and environmentally responsible business behaviour at competitive prices. A good business reputation has a significant impact on the brands customers choose. If organisations are to survive in the rapidly changing global environment, they must embrace and increase their communication.

After all, if customers, employees and investors don’t have the necessary information to compare different companies and products, it is difficult for them to make the right choices. Help them to lead a more sustainable lifestyle by keeping them in the loop!

Why companies report  To mitigate negative impacts.  To improve reputation.  To enable external stakeholders to understand the company’s true value.  To demonstrate how the organization influences and is influenced by expectations about sustainability.

Business communication can be classified into two types: internal and external. Internal documents circulate within the company. External documents are shared with stakeholders outside of the business.

So, start talking about your CSR efforts!

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Getting the message across Try videos to communicate your CSR efforts.

Start by watching this inspirational movie: »HOME« available for free on Youtube

organic tea to go with the theme. Or try locally roasted coffee and Mahangu cookies.

Implementation tools Here’s how you get word out to your internal and external stakeholders.

Internal communication In the modern business world, people communicate by text, phone, email, written correspondence and verbal communication. In effective communication, you must choose the communication method best suited for your staff. However, it is important to:  announce your CSR vision and implementation roadmap early on  continuously update your staff on progress regarding CSR activities  encourage two-way communication and be open to feedback and ideas  talk about challenges during the process, just as much as you celebrate milestones Here are some ideas for your internal communication with employees: Weekly CSR tea: Informal gatherings are important in any company. This is where new ideas are born. Get your employees together for a weekly tea break to talk about CSR matters. Of course, you should serve

Suggestion box: Sometimes people are afraid to talk about their ideas because they don’t know how they will be received. To gather those great ideas, put up a suggestion box in the office where everyone can drop project ideas anonymously. This way you can also gather feedback on completed projects. Let people have their say!

Let them vote: Once a month, open the suggestion box and list all the ideas, however small or weird, on a wall poster. Then ask team members to (anonymously) vote for their favourite idea by sticking a red dot next to it. The project with the biggest support wins and can be implemented as the project of the month.

External communication Communicating your CSR projects to your external stakeholders is very important. Part of your social engagement is because you want a good business reputation, which can give you a competitive advantage. On the other hand, you also want to tap into your stakeholders for new ideas. Therefore you need to let people know what you are doing well and what you are still working on.

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Implementation cycle

5 - Talk your walk

Local media: You can easily create a little press release about your projects. Or you can place a small advertisement, emphasising your CSR commitment and/or project(s). During a staff volunteer activity or a cheque handover, you can take photos and send them to newspapers for publishing. Papers are always looking for a good story.

Website: Creating a website these days is easy and inexpensive. You can use this platform to talk about CSR efforts – and of course about your products and services, too. A very userfriendly and free online tool to build your own website is www.wordpress.org. If that still seems too difficult, you may want to start a blog to create some buzz around your company and latest developments.

Check out www.blogger.com to create one.

Social Media: If you are not part of the tweeting generation – no worries. Ask any one of your younger employees to set up an account and keep it updated. They’ll be thrilled to get an excuse to check out Twitter or Facebook as part of their job! Social media is on the rise and the next generation of clients will use it to check out your products as well as sustainability efforts. Try Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Let your products speak: As a business you produce or sell products on a regular basis. Make use of them as a communication tool at no extra cost. You print labels for your products anyway, so you can include information on their positive ecological or social properties or your CSR activities on the back. Even if you sell services, the letters and documents you send out can contain little bits of extra information on your CSR projects, as can your business cards and flyers.

International reporting If you are more established in your CSR activities, think about a proper sustainability report. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy book with dozens of pages. A small report in form of a brochure could be a great start towards professional sustainability reporting.

Thankfully, there are international guidelines you can use to structure your reporting activities. Each of these organisations have plenty of reporting tools available for both corporates and SMEs. If you are planning to grow internationally or work with big Multinational Corporations (MNCs) you’d better be comfortable preparing in-depth reports on your CSR. It’s the stuff that they look for when choosing new suppliers from abroad.

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Transparency: Let your products speak German fishmonger Followfish allows customers to track products online with a code: www.followfish.de/en

So, here is where you get advise: UN Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is an international network and framework for sustainability management and CSR with a membership of about 7000 socially and environmentally conscious companies from around the world. The UN Global Compact also provides guidance if you’d like to report on your CSR progress at www.unglobalcompact.org Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) This network-based organisation has produced and regularly updates a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework. It allows you to report according to your CSR maturity level and is therefore quite useful for small companies, too. All relevant documents, news on the latest trends in sustainability reporting and more information are available free of charge at the GRI website under the link www.globalreporting.org ISO 26000 The ISO 26000 standard provides harmonized, globally relevant guidance on social responsibility management for private and public sector organisations of all types. An overview is available free of charge, but the full document has to be bought at www.iso.org

Helena’s Corner Grocery Being proud of having succeeded in their first CSR project, the grocery team wants to tell their customers and the community about it. Joseph is keen on setting up a Facebook page for the shop. The first posts on the new profile are about their new prices and new suppliers. Because all three team members write emails to their friends, customers and business partners as well as post the link on many other Facebook pages, one hundred people »like« Helena’s grocery profile after only one day. They have a lot more custom-

ers in the following week than ever before.

Joseph is appointed as communicator within the business by his boss Helena. His task will be to keep the Facebook page up-to-date and to bring up new communication ideas in the future. This way, internal and external communication go together quite well - and Joseph learns some new social media skills in the process.

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Local case studies

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Local case studies

Flying High Pest Control

The business Flying High Pest Control, which started in 2008, offers the elimination of pests in and around residences and business premises, including restaurants. Three people work full-time in the business, with another three people being employed on a part-time basis.

The model The business promotes their services as ethical, professional, responsive and caring. »We don’t just throw around with chemicals,« says business owner Jessica Marasha.

Instead, they make sure that children don’t get close to the chemicals, since they are always curious and will want to touch or even taste the toxic baits, bottles and materials. The same applies to pets. After pest controlling a house or an area, the reusable and non-reusable containers are thoroughly washed. Non-reusable containers are wrapped up before being recycled, which helps to reduce the risk of contaminating people that scavenge at dump sites.

The business owners guarantee that their clients’ houses are free of unwanted guests for at least a month. Plus, they give recommendations on how to avoid pests in the future, and the business responds quickly when clients make an enquiry.

Their service is not limited to formal housing. It also works in informal settlements as well as villages, and all clients are treated in a professional manner.

The drivers At the beginning, the business owners did not find it necessary to let anyone know about their ethical approach. But as the company started reaching out to business premises, they were challenged by having to prove their ethics and were asked to show their company profile. Advertising their services in this way helps to build confidence.

When working in private homes, ethical behaviour of employees reduces the risk of theft. The staff are trained to respect people’s possessions and privacy.

The results »Ethical conduct helps to build trust in all business dealings and to provide services efficiently and effectively,« says Jessica.

Cleaning up where they work and trying to leave the place looking the way it was, or better, satisfies clients so they become return customers.

081 2260124. jmarasha@gmail.com

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Local case studies

Organic Box

people without transport and those pressed for time to do a large part of their shopping without actually going to a grocery store.

On top of this, the Organic Box makes local produce more easily accessible and helps to grow the made-in-Namibian market, creating jobs and sustaining livelihoods.

The business Early 2012 Steinhausen-based farmer Ina Cramer and Dirk Wรถlbling, horticulturist from Okahandja, launched their distribution model Organic Box to bring fresh farm produce and dairy to people in Okahandja and Windhoek. Orders can be made via an online form and are delivered to homes and offices every Thursday.

The model The Organic Box model focuses on a number of CSR practices that combine social and environmental factors with an innovation in distribution and customer liaison. To start with, most items on offer are certified organic, lessening the burden on the environment and increasing animal welfare. Together with other farmers in the Namibian Organic Association (NOA), Ina and Dirk champion the cause of organic agriculture in Namibia. The added benefit of a direct distribution model allows especially elderly

The drivers Both Ina and Dirk had been operating their organic farms for a number of years but were looking to expand their customer base beyond retailers and local markets. The main reason to introduce the Organic Box concept was to have a direct connection to consumers, cutting out intermediaries and improving profit margins. This perfectly suited their endeavour to promote and expand the reach for local and organic produce, which often are not labelled as such in supermarkets. The close link with consumers is also designed to help the business get a better understanding of their needs and product requirement.

The results Since its inception, the Organic Box has managed to attract a diverse customer base, most of them regular buyers, with supply outstripping demand for certain products. This is good news for the environment as well as the business. www.organic-box.com

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Local case studies

Katutours

The business Katutours is a tourism activity tour operator offering township tours of Windhoek on bicycles. The tours through Katutura are offered seven days a week, following a route of about 8km for about 3.5 hours. The micro business was initiated by Anna Mafwila, a young woman who knows her clients as well as the districts she takes them to.

The model The tour itinerary reflects the business’ approach to social responsibility. Firstly, only public sites are visited, no privacy is intruded. Secondly, by including frequent stops, Katutours brings clients to community projects. Other than most tour operators, she does not take commission for this.

Tours start and end at Penduka, a craft centre that encourages and supports selfemployment of disadvantaged women.

Here, the cyclists can buy crafts, eat at the restaurant and enjoy cultural performances.

Other stops on the way are markets in Katutura, where the cyclists can try traditional food and get in touch with locals. They also stop at the King’s Daughters bicycle shop, an income-generating project that supports former commercial sex workers. Through her network Anna helps them to receive bicycle parts and second-hand bicycles. In the near future, five percent of Katutours profits will go to local charities too.

The drivers The vision of business owner Anna is to help Katutura develop and prosper. She wants to change perceptions about Katutura. Suffering from its Apartheid legacy, Namibia is still a divided country. Katutours wants to build trust between the black and the white communities by bringing non-residents to Katutura in a decent and respectful way to see their city from a new perspective.

The results In its first year of successful operations, Katutours has provided income to community projects and businesses. 80% of her clients are tourists, mostly from Europe.

Based on this success, Anna wants to expand. She has added tours of the city centre and bicycle rental. She has the vision to promote self-employment via franchising: people could do their own tours using a handbook and the Katutours logo.

www.katutours.com

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Local case studies

Sam’s Giardino

Apart from providing good working conditions, Sam’s Giardino incorporates environmentally sustainable business practices.

They try to reduce their waste (e.g., return packaging to suppliers), plant endemic species in the garden, use biodegradable detergents, cook with fresh produce and installed a solar water heating system.

The business Sam's Giardino is a small guesthouse in Swakopmund catering for individual travellers who appreciate high quality of accommodation and food. The Swiss hotelier employs nine people and has eight guest rooms.

The model The small company takes care of its employees and of the environment in the scope of daily business. The owners offer their employees comprehensive hospitality training on the job. Employees rotate within the guesthouse between all the working areas except reception. They learn to cook, to set up the breakfast buffet, to serve dinner and to do room service. Staff trainings in health and safety are also organised three times a year. After the training, employees receive a certificate upon successful examination.

Furthermore, staff enjoy free meals, a fiveday week, four weeks of vacation, plus, they can take hot showers at the guesthouse.

The drivers As a small business, the guesthouse cannot afford a budget for community investments but can make a difference within their own premises, focusing on employees. The women from former townships lack employment possibilities and education as well as basic needs such as food and electricity.

Reducing the consumption of natural resources and using renewable energy not only protects the environment but also reduces costs. And there are more and more tourists who ask for eco-friendly accommodation and catering, which is a unique selling point for Sam’s Giardino.

The results Employees stay with the company for about 8 to 12 years, retaining much-needed skills and expertise in the long-run. Plus, by employing women from poor suburbs without vocational training, the business supports the wider community. www.giardinonamibia.com

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Local case studies

GreenEarth

The business GreenEarth Trading and Farming is a Windhoek-based family business, which offers a nursery, landscaping and farming. Business owners Theofilus and Odette Ickua place emphasis on growing and planting indigenous Namibian plants. Founded in 2006, the business now has 14 employees.

The model With the Green Schools and Communities projects, GreenEarth has chosen environmental education as their main CSR activity.

Young learners and community-based women groups are encouraged to plant indigenous tree seedlings and sell them to the GreenEarth nursery where the plants mature before being sold. The students and women receive seeds and are educated how to take care of the plants. The income is then used to assist with repairs or buying second-hand computers for schools, or as additional family income for the women.

Other companies can get involved by ordering seedlings too.

Another initiative is recycling of garden waste from landfill sites to re-use as fire wood or for composting. On top of this, GreenEarth is busy starting projects to plant fruit trees along streets in Namibian cities.

ban communities in search of work. Most of them are forced to set up makeshift homes and do great damage to the environment and expose themselves to unhealthy living conditions. Landfill sites are growing and trees become scarce due to logging for fire wood. ÂťYou have to give back,ÂŤ Theo Ickua tells his people. Children seem most open to this message, which is why he likes to address children in his community projects.

Furthermore, Theo Ickua wants to show people how to generate food themselves for own consumption or income generation.

The results Seven schools and two communities in different regions of Namibia participated in the nursery initiatives to date. By growing their own trees they can generate enough income to sort out school maintenance problems while taking care of the environment.

The drivers Many Namibians relocate from rural to ur061 272225. greenearth@mtcmobile.com.na

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Your space

Notes

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Info corner

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i

Good to know

Info corner

Global CSR Organisations

The 10 Principles of the UN Global Compact

Accountability www.accountability.org

Human Rights 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Business in the Community www.bitc.org.uk

Corporate Register www.corporateregister.com

CSCP www.scp-centre.org

Labour 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour; 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

CSR Europe www.csreurope.org

CSR for SMEs www.csr-in-smes.eu

CSRwire www.csrwire.com

Global Reporting Initiative www.globalreporting.org

ISO 26000

Environment 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges; 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

www.iso.org

United Nations Global Compact www.unglobalcompact.org

WBCSD www.wbcsd.org

Local CSR support for SMEs Global Compact Network Namibia www.globalcompactnamibia.org

Imago Dei www.imagodei.com.na

Anti-Corruption 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

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From the people behind the book

Editorial

Together for a sustainable future

About the authors

This handbook is the result of a collaboration between international and local Namibian actors to promote Corporate Social Responsibility as a tool for development in Namibia. We hope that you will use this document for your own business or as an inspiration for others. We would also like to encourage anyone working in the field of CSR, entrepreneurship or innovation to create similar handbooks for your respective markets. We strongly believe that companies of all sizes should and can make meaningful contributions to a better world.

Anita Demuth Anita graduated in Economics and Political Science. She has managed projects for the Global Compact Network Namibia for six months, using her work experience in media as well as in institutions for sustainability and climate change issues in Germany. She contributed to several GCNN publications.

We would like to express our gratitude to the German Government, which supported this handbook via the Deutsche Gesellschaft fĂźr International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). www.giz.de Icons used in this booklet are from The Noun Project: thenounproject.com Special designer attribution: Africa: Monika Ciapala Announcement: Proletkult Arrow: Matt Scribner Bicycle: Olivier Guin Bottle: Jakob Vogel Box: Travis J. Lee Checklist: Michael Young Cup: Brandon Hopkins DNA: Darrin Higgins Drafting: Jacob Eckert Eart: Francesco Paleari Feather: Plumer Firecracker: Max Becker

Flash Cards: Rohan Gupta Jar: Gulio Bertolotti Library: Plinio Fernandes Newspaper: Connie Shu Poster: Dima Yagnyuk Ribbon: Nathan Driskell Ship Wheel: Renar SC Sign Language: Jakob Vogel Stopwatch: Irit Barzily Sun: Adam Whitcroft Target: _Lo Team: Umbra2 Design Tree: Hernan D. Schlosman

Silke Feldmann Trained as a journalist, Silke Feldmann is an expert in sustainability and CSR. In her capacity as Project Manager for the Global Compact Network Namibia (GCNN) from 2011 to 2012, she was providing CSR advisory services to the network's and the Namibia Employers' Federation's members, as well as being responsible for the local adaptation and implementation of the UN Global Compact’s 10 principles. silke.feldmann@gmail.com

Bernhard Rohkemper As the manager for Entrepreneurship & Incubation at the Namibia Business Innovation Centre (NBIC), Bernhard assists entrepreneurs and SMEs to make a meaningful contribution to economic and social development. Before this he worked as a CSR strategy and communications consultant for corporations in Europe. bernhard.rohkemper@gmail.com

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x

HOW TO BUILD COMMUNITY TURN OFF YOUR TV LEAVE YOUR HOUSE KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOURS PLANT FLOWERS • GREET PEOPLE PLAY TOGETHER • LEND A HAND SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES SHARE WHAT YOU HAVE • HONOR ELDERS RESPECT YOUNGSTERS FIX IT EVEN IF YOU DIDN’T BREAK IT BRAAI TOGETHER • PICK UP LITTER SHARE YOUR SKILLS LISTEN TO THE BIRDS • PUT UP A SWING HELP CARRY SOMETHING HEAVY START A TRADITION • ASK A QUESTION ORGANISE A BLOCK PARTY BAKE EXTRA AND SHARE ASK FOR HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT SEEK TO UNDERSTAND Published 2012 in Windhoek by

Namibia Employers Federation (NEF) P.O. Box 90194 Klein Windhoek, Windhoek Namibia t +264 (0)61 244 089 f +264 (0)61 244 231 e nefenquiry@nef.com.na i www.globalcompactnamibia.org

Partnership for Economic Growth (PEG) P.O. Box 8016 Bachbrecht, Windhoek Namibia t +264 (0)61 222 447 f +264 (0)61 307 518 e bernhard.rohkemper@giz.de i www.giz.de GIZ is headquartered in Bonn & Eschborn, Germany.