Dubai: Almost 66 per cent of companies in Dubai don't take part in community events due to a lack of awareness and financial resources, according to a study released by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The Chamber's Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) has released results of four research initiatives carried out over the past year covering four aspects of corporate social responsibility, or CSR, including corporate community involvement, employee volunteering, responsible consumption and green purchasing.
Hamad Bu Amim, the Chamber's director general, said the studies "clearly indicate that when it comes to corporate social responsibility and conducting responsible business, we have yet to scratch the surface. In today's business environment, the business community must provide answers to a number of impending social and environmental issues."
Many companies involved in community work have been doing so to improve local community relationships and enhance their reputation, the study says. "CSR is taken as a brand-building strategy worldwide," said Raju Menon, investment adviser and managing partner at Morison Menon Chartered, a business consultancy.
Corporates
"What the companies have to come to understand is that CSR is a big responsibility for businessmen," he said. "However, here there aren't a lot of corporate companies [in the country]. Corporate means that they are public shareholding companies, but there aren't a lot here," he explained. "Here there are individuals with big trade. It means that the ownership is limited to a few people."
Employee volunteering is also in the early stage of development, according to the study. About 21 per cent of businesses encouraged or accommodated employee volunteer activities in 2008 and only 5 per cent of those actually have a corporate volunteer policy.
The most common barriers to volunteer activities by companies are lack of knowledge about volunteer programmes (22 per cent), lack of time (20 per cent), and the lack of employee awareness (9 per cent).
"CSR is part of corporate governance, so when there is no corporate governance there will be a lack of CSR. People will not know what it is. They will just do their business," Menon added.
"You can't separate business from the society. When I do business in the society I need to ensure that I look into the problems of the society," he said. "That is part of the businessperson's responsibility."
A third of responding businesses reported that they implement CSR in order to comply with Islamic values and practices of Zakat, the study says.
The study on awareness of green purchasing reports that 80 per cent of businesses are aware of the concept while 41 per cent are looking for ways to implement green practices within their purchasing functions.
The lack of green materials and products is a major reason behind limiting the adoption of green purchasing. Some businesses have recognised its importance and have made attempts to implement the concept, but the adoption rates are still low, and green purchasing strategies are still reactive in nature.
The study also reveals that reusing and recycling are the most important resource reduction practices adopted by businesses in Dubai.
"Good corporate governance would include CSR. We don't have that here. So the Dubai Chamber and other organisational bodies should really educate the corporate governance to reach CSR," Menon said.
"The recent research studies clearly indicate that when it comes to corporate social responsibility and conducting responsible business, we have yet to scratch the surface. In today's business environment, the business community needs to provide answers to a number of impending social and environmental issues," Bu Amim said. "Of course, we also understand that businesses need to meet their targets and succeed. Our Centre for Responsible Business can assist change the perception of CSR as a cost-incurring activity to an effective business tool that will help companies prosper and achieve sustainable growth.
"Investment in efficient energy sources, for example, will benefit the environment and the bottom line of businesses. Simple measures enabled Dubai Chamber to reduce its consumption of energy by 47 per cent and this translated into a staggering Dh5.5 million at no additional expense over a period of 10 years.
"The data reveal that only 21 per cent of companies encouraged employee volunteer activities in 2008. We believe we can achieve much more when companies are convinced that supporting the community will ultimately help them attract more customers, boost brand loyalty and involve their stake-holders in a greater cause."
