Corporate Social Responsibility And Compliance: Commitment At The Top

This is the fifth in a series of posts reflecting excerpts from a chapter that I authored on corporate social responsibility ("CSR") for the  Corporate Legal Compliance Handbook.

Integrating CSR into the framework of a company's overall compliance program may help engage executive-level managers and the board of directors as allies in ensuring that CSR commitments are supported through the allocation of sufficient resources and management attention. In response to heightened levels of regulatory attention, many companies have focused on the development of enterprise risk and compliance programs that include reporting channels to senior executives. CSR plays an important risk mitigation function for many companies and executive leaders and board members should ensure that they have the information necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of a company's management systems in evaluating and responding to key social and environmental risks and concerns.