Within the next two years, 89 percent of companies in the U.S. and 62 percent in Europe plan to use technology to manage their corporate social responsibility initiatives, according to a new AMR Research survey. However, while environmental issues are of prime importance in Europe, U.S. firms seem to be ahead in the integration of CSR-related data systems.
Currently, 47 percent of European companies either gain no CSR-related data from IT systems or have numerous disconnected systems; compare this to just 19 percent in the same position in the U.S. Nearly half of U.S. companies (49%) claim to have some or fully integrated systems to provide information on CSR topics; 32 percent claim to have just started the integration process. Just 17 percent of European-based companies have fully integrated systems.
Close to 70 percent of companies have a dedicated budget for CSR initiatives, with 48 percent of companies having a dedicated budget for environmental initiatives.
Of those that are tackling the subject, the leading business reasons were as follows:
