LEGO Comes Top For CSR

The world’s biggest toy manufacturer LEGO Group has topped the list of organisations for best corporate social responsibility performance.

The 2017 Global CSR RepTrak 100 study, released by the Reputation Institute, ranks the world’s most socially responsible, highly-regarded and familiar global companies in 15 countries based on their respective CSR performances.

This year, LEGO Group and Microsoft took first and second place, surpassing Google, which had been at the top of the ranking for the previous three years.

LEGO Group chief financial officer Marjorie Lao said they were honoured to see their efforts “to positively impact the planet” resonated with people all over the world.

“We feel a huge sense of responsibility to inspire and develop children through play while leaving a significant positive impact on the world children will inherit,” Lao said.

“It is part of our DNA as a company, and we will continue to set the bar high for ourselves to do better.”

The survey was based on 170,000 ratings from interviews with members of the public from Australia as well as the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, USA, Canada, Japan, China, India, and South Korea.

Organisations were measured against three main components: workplace, citizenship, and governance.

Reputation Institute executive partner and chief research officer Stephen Hahn-Griffiths said there was a resurging importance of the governance and citizenship dimensions of CSR in 2017.

“The dominant drivers of CSR are defined by ethics, fairness, and societal impact,” Hahn-Griffiths said.

“For an organisation, having a strong CSR agenda is important, because it ensures customers will do business with you, policymakers and regulators will give you license to operate, and potential employees will be more willing to work for you.

“CSR is increasingly a top driver of stakeholder support. It equates to good will and good business.”

Across the board, the technology industry ranked highest in terms of CSR, with tech firms comprising four of the top 10 – although individual firms, such as Apple, which had one of the largest CSR score drops since 2016, were found to be struggling.

At the other end of the scale industries, such as the financial industry, were falling behind on all dimensions of CSR.

Hahn-Griffiths said the top companies with stronger CSR scores had improved in reputation and stakeholder support with CSR.

“They have demonstrated their leadership is actively engaged in CSR, and their commitment to the cause is driven by action not just about rhetoric”, he said.

“When an organisation’s CSR agenda aligns with its corporate brand purpose, it drives higher levels of internal and external engagement.”