CSR - Green Growth Case Studies from UK Businesses

Students researching the benefits and costs of firms which are undertaking corporate social responsibility activities will be on the look out for tangible, credible evidence of results. This series of brief case studies from the Carbon Trust is a veritable gold mine for effective research and should enable students to include evidence which examiners find credible and relevant…

The Carbon Trust website has a good selection of up-to-date case studies.

For example, the January 2011 case study on M&S explains how through Plan A, M&S has introduced products and services to help customers live more sustainably and last year generated £50m additional profit which has been invested back into the business.

The savings at Walkers Crisps are less significant, but the case study on how Pepsico is working to reduce the foodmiles involved in making the product is still fascinating and relevant. In just two years PepsiCo UK & Ireland has eaten away at the carbon footprint of its Walkers crisps business by 7%, and saved significant sums of money in the process – over £400,000 – which has been re-invested into the business.

Like M&S, the B&Q business has embraced sustainability in a very integrated way. Operating in a green-focused way in embedded in the firm’s overall strategy (i.e. it is a core part of the firms objectives). Another excellent case study here. B&Q’s growing range of new eco-friendly products (One Planet Home) now represent 12 per cent of turnover.

Well worth pointing students towards this excellent resource - the Carbon Trust.