Integrating Occupational Safety and Health with Corporate Social Responsibility: People over Profits

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) employed by organizations in business decisions affects customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities, environment and other stakeholders. The concept requires compliance with countries' and regions' laws concerning occupational health and safety, and also sets out additional activities to be undertaken through health and safety management structure. The Obama administration supports many of the initiatives and benefits of CSR. With increasing globalization, greater environmental and social awareness, and more efficient communication, the concept of corporations' responsibilities beyond their drive to be merely legally compliant and profit-related has gained new impetus. In order to succeed, the corporate world now has to be seen to be acting responsibly towards the 3 P's: people, planet and profit. CSR is an inspiring, challenging, and strategically important development that is becoming an increasingly important priority for large companies. This initiative is gaining more awareness in the medium sized companies, but is generally off the radar for the smaller companies. Occupational safety and health (OSH) issues are an essential component of a large and medium sized corporation's social responsibilities in the twenty first century. Occupational safety and health professionals need to be aware of the opportunities and challenges they face in this evolving global corporate environment. The safety profession as we now know it must realign itself as a value-add to corporate stakeholders and become the corporate champion for people, the planet, and profits. This presentation will discuss how integrating OSH issues into CSR balances profits with worker safety, public health, and environmental responsibilities.