Enterprise 2020: our strategy

Enterprise 2020 is an ambitious initiative launched by CSR Europe in 2010 to address the European and global challenges which are increasingly bringing into question our current patterns of living, working, learning, communicating, consuming and sharing resources.

In the context of the EU’s Europe 2020 strategy, Enterprise 2020 highlights the contribution that businesses can make to achieve the EU goals for building a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy delivering high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion by 2020.

Since its launch, Enterprise 2020 has become the European movement for companies committed to developing innovative business practices and working together with their stakeholders to provide solutions to emerging societal needs. 

Key elements of Enterprise 2020

How will global trends such as increasing globalisation, demographic change, natural resource scarcity, technology acceleration, global health challenges and social divisions shape business and society? Furthermore, how will these trends influence the capacity of business to create value that contributes to economic, societal and environmental progress?

CSR Europe defines an Enterprise 2020 company as a company that has fully integrated CSR into its business strategies – a business that contributes to SMART, SUSTAINABLE, and INCLUSIVE growth.

The balance between minimizing risks through accountability and maximizing opportunities through transparency and social innovation lies at the very heart of our Enterprise 2020 initiative.

Social innovation means new ideas, business models, products and services resolving existing sustainable challenges, such as demographic change, human rights violations, financial crisis, environmental degradation, and poverty.

Enterprise 2020 put into practice


1)      Highly developed CSR management and transparency

  • A com­pa­ny's abil­i­ty to man­age and mit­i­gate expo­sure to envi­ron­men­tal, social and gov­ern­ance issues
  • In order to be a trusted and successful company, transparency is necessary to build stakeholder confidence.
  • However, enhanced transparency will only be worthwhile if it also drives performance on key material issues. Reporting should therefore be a process to articulate and reflect these improvements.

2)      Social innovation as business strategy

  • More and more businesses also see the opportunities in tackling societal issues to simultaneously create business and social value.
  • Product and service innovation are key drivers in such a strategy.

How will CSR Europe build Enterprise 2020?

Through Enterprise 2020, CSR Europe aims to provide value added services to its members that will not only restore faith in corporate leadership but will allow for continuous improvement and the transition to a sustainable economy.

As such, many enterprises and stakeholders are able to lead on “Enterprise 2020 Collaborative Projects”, and develop thought leadership and practical tools for companies and their stakeholders.

For the period 2011 - 2013, CSR Europe has prioritised 6 collaborative projects. In this respect, CSR Europe will endeavour to provide informative Issue Insights on these topics by means of webinars, conference calls, meetings and events to our members. To read more about other projects under the Enterprise 2020 umbrella, led by CSR Europe's members and partners, please click here.

  • Active engagement in Enterprise 2020’s collaborative projects leads to the development of thought leadership and practical tools that can be replicated and transferred to other areas and sectors
  • Outputs of the projects are considered as the basis for new synergies with European and international policy making

EU endorsement of Enterprise 2020

In its recent communication on CSR, the EU commission writes:  CSR Europe’s Enterprise 2020 initiative is an example of business leadership in the field of CSR that is particularly relevant to EU policy objectives. The Commission will help to review the initial results of this initiative by the end of 2012, and to define its next steps.” (New EU Communication on CSR (October 2011), page 8, line 15).

CSR Europe welcomes the support of the European Commission to strengthen the Enterprise 2020 initiative as we believe that no single company, policymaker or organisation can successfully work in isolation to address today’s complex social and environmental challenges.

What is in it for you?

  • Main­stream­ing CSR across all busi­ness func­tions, assess­ing and com­mu­ni­cat­ing its impacts, and involv­ing dif­fer­ent stake­hold­er groups in its fur­ther devel­op­ment remains a cru­cial chal­lenge. Address­ing this task requires inno­va­tion and joint efforts of many more com­pa­nies and stake­hold­ers work­ing in new part­ner­ships.
  • Social innovation is the key to the success of any company in achieving new ideas, business models, and products and services resolving existing sustainable challenges such as demographic change, human rights violations, finacial crise, environmental degradation, and poverty.
  • The time has come for governments, companies, investors, civil society, academic institutions and communities to work closely together. Building mutual trust and transforming the way we work is our shared responsibility.

 

For more information, download this informative brochure.