8.1 (a) Introduction

This publication presented a broad view of the different Social Responsibility (SR) management tools available in the world, which aim at contributing to the Sustainable Evolution and inspire initiatives in several countries.

In general, these are self-assessment and learning tools developed to help organizations (of all sectors) to incorporate social responsibility concepts and practices into the several stages of CSR management. Therefore, they encompass diagnosis, implementation, benchmarking and performance assessment in the three aspects of sustainable evolution – economic, social and environmental - , thus allowing a more effective management of stakeholder relationship and the social and environmental impacts resulting from the organization’s activities throughout its production chain, value chain and cooperation networks.

However, despite the diversity, the use of these tools is still made by a limited number of organizations, many of which are also actors responsible for the development of these tools together with non-governmental organizations, public agencies, associations and universities. These various actors engaged in the development of these tools are among the pioneers both in conceiving and advancing the CSR movement. This way, part of these initiatives are still being developed or piloted, pursuing the dialogue within the SR movement to be legitimized.

We have noticed that the environmental management presents more advancednumerous and regulated tools, laying the foundations of CSR solutions.

Most tools listed do not address the size of companies they are designed for. There is, however, a clear effort to develop tools for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The origin of socially responsible management tools surveyed is mainly private, most of them from non-governmental initiatives.

 The typology observed in this study believes that the degree of interactivity (stakeholders + production chain, value chain and cooperation networks) and external monitoring (auditing) is currently the most important factor to differentiate the tools studied. This degree is actually what determines the impact on financial and human resources of the organization, as well as the depth of this initiative in its work towards sustainable evolution.

For the time being, the adoption of CSR/SD management tools remains voluntary. For some, more liberal, voluntary initiatives are tangible evidence of companies’ commitment; for others, more regulation-oriented, they mostly confirm the companies’ determination to not let the government impose new regulatory constraints on them by acting beforehand.

We did not mean to cover all the existing tools, especially because the theme is relatively recent and still being developed. Therefore, we opted for an Internet- based research following a mapping made by the several organizations that deal with the theme in Brazil and abroad. Neither did we include the whole range of CSR tools such as, for example, the Best Practices Databases and Codes of Ethics and Conduct, which deserve the attention of the organizations for they truly contribute to their socially responsible performance.

The Internet is, actually, the ideal and most frequent media for the disclosure of information about these tools, as well as sharing of best business practices. The survey tried to respect the way the tools’ content was presented, so as to show the reader a faithful portrait of how these tools were designed.

For now, we cannot be driven by excess or euphoria, disregarding the important potential dysfunctions, or even the lack of data that hinder the assessment of the actual efficacy of such initiatives. We should bear in mind that, despite the methodological and technical advance and the great number of tools, we are just beginning a long process of reshaping a system that so far has prioritized only the economic aspects.