Corporate Social Responsibility in action: the DANI case, shaping a sustainable future

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility stands for a new way of creating strategy for enterprises that integrates social, ethical and environmental issues. A new vision of a business that brings within itself the external dimension, since it has been realized that each company is a part of a context with which it is in perpetual communication and continuous interaction, so it must no longer act only thinking as an individual and focusing only on its own interest, but considering a set of variables and environmental, social and ethical implications before deciding and implementing its strategic choices. The paper proposes to analyze in depth this new way of doing business. The first chapter will concentrate on the theoretical aspect of what have been the different and evolving currents of thought regarding Corporate Social Responsibility from the early ‘50s up to nowadays; then those that are the different ideologies of thought depending on the geographic area in which we are: so it will be evaluated the Italian, European and International framework, with an excursus of the salient International Meetings, Agreements and Bodies as well as the main European Initiatives; and finally, still in this chapter, another theme that will be analyzed is the one concerning sustainable development and the creation of shared value (which represents one of the cornerstones of CSR). The second chapter will be concentrated on the relationship that there is between the strategy of a company and the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, then referring to the economic and juridical convenience, its tools and its various stages of development. Concluded the analysis at theoretical level, the last chapter will focus on the practical aspect bringing as an example a real business case, analyzing it in all its facets. DANI S.p.A., a tannery in Arzignano, Vicenza, was chosen as a case study, and it was decided to divide the analysis of the company into four macro-areas in order to better understand DANI's commitment, objectives, and strategic choices in relation to Corporate Social Responsibility. The first step was to evaluate the company's identity, namely, to understand its mission and objectives, its values and code of ethics. The second phase consisted in evaluating the relationship with the environment, including the environmental certifications that the firm possesses and how it manages emissions, energy, and waste management. Next, attention is given in examining how DANI performs stakeholder engagement, analyzing its relationship with its employees, customers, suppliers, territory, and local community as a whole and then individually. Lastly, a final chapter was dedicated to DANI's relationship with innovation and the quality of products, of processes and of the organization's system, thus examining the innovative projects it has completed and is pursuing and the relative system certifications obtained.