Abstract
The adoption of standards and tools has been an important element of the CSR-movement in Brazil, and organizations in the country have turned out to be pioneers in using voluntary certification schemes or contributed to standards such as ISO26000 which has been developed under common leadership of Brazil and Sweden. Today, Brazil is a leading country in terms of commodity based CSR-certifications and has introduced mandatory CSR-reporting regulations for the energy, public company and banking sector. Since the launch of the first Ethos Indicators for Social Responsibility, the number of companies that apply standards and report against the GRI or IIRC-Frameworks has constantly grown. This chapter describes the evolution and formalization of the CSR-movement in Brazil and analyzes how a pre-existing company culture of quality certifications has favored the fact that many organizations adopted voluntary CSR-certifications schemes. Based on expert consultations and data collection, it highlights the most important standards used in Brazil and tries to respond to the question, if standardization has helped to prevent a major “backlash” of CSR-practices during the economic crisis or if important areas of sustainability management have suffered retraction.
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Notes
- 1.
Parts of this article are based on Grüninger (2009).
- 2.
Instituto Ethos is the main CSR-organization in Brazil and has also influenced the movements in other Latin American Countries: www.ethos.org.br
- 3.
Abrinq is the acronym of the association of toy producers in Brazil. The Abrinq Foundation was one of the first industry associations with a focus on CSR-projects.
- 4.
Members and results of the program of “Child Friendly Companies” are published on the website: https://www.fadc.org.br/programas-institucionais/protecao-empresa-amiga-da-crianca
- 5.
Fischer and Falconer (2000).
- 6.
Fischer and Falconer (2000, p. 64).
- 7.
A short overview on the CLT can be found on: http://www.swisscam.com.br/12.-labor-law-in-brazil-a-brief-overview.html
- 8.
- 9.
Two important news agencies that denounce slave and child labour conditions.
- 10.
Santa Elisa sugar factory reported a 34% production increase to 12% reduction of absenteeism after certification.
- 11.
Guillardi (2006) and internal data of BSD Consulting, São Paulo.
- 12.
Indicators applied by the author and his team on a sample of factories corroborated this conclusion.
- 13.
Instituto Observatório Social (2004).
- 14.
Corporate Social Responsibility management is understood—according to ISO26000—as a multi-faceted management approach that, like quality, should be integrated into all aspects of how a company conducts its business, see for a wider discussion: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/03/iso-26000-definition-social-responsibility
- 15.
The set of Indicators can be accessed online or being downloaded as PDF at: https://www3.ethos.org.br/conteudo/indicadores/#.WdbLbVtSzIU
- 16.
ISE: Indíce de Sustentabilidade Empresarial.
- 17.
- 18.
- 19.
- 20.
For a discussion on certifications of commodities in Brazil see: https://www.isealalliance.org/online-community/resources/responsible-production-and-consumption-in-brazil-trends-in-certification-report-dec
- 21.
FSC: Forest Stewardship Council.
- 22.
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
- 26.
- 27.
Grüninger and Schiesari (2014).
- 28.
Fairtrade International (2008).
- 29.
A similar conclusion was made for workers on UTZ certified farms.
- 30.
Pioneers such as C&A and Renner already certified 100% of their supply chain, the list of member companies of the ABVTEX certification can be found at: http://abvtex.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=356&Itemid=62&lang=pt
- 31.
So far unpublished data of an impact study commissioned by ABVTEX in 2016.
- 32.
One of the major social auditing schemes globally, the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), informed the author, that, globally, 9422 companies in the apparel sector were in its database (e-mail communication, October 14, 2016).
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Grüninger, B. (2019). CSR and Management Practices: The Role of CSR-Standards in Brazil. In: Stehr, C., Dziatzko, N., Struve, F. (eds) Corporate Social Responsibility in Brazil. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90605-8_2
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