CSR Performance Measurement

Corporate Social Responsibility relates to corporations, i.e. organizations, not products. Most products are the result of a network of organizations co-operating to generate some financial / commercial benefit. Just because an organization is socially responsible, doesn’t mean its products are. In order to say so you need to have perfect visibility and meaningful information about the business practices of all the organizations involved in supplying the components making up the product.

Just thinking out loud:
”I'm really interested in the whole notion of CSR and broadly agree with its general sub-text (i.e. it must be possible to run businesses in a way that is good for the many rather than the few."
“But CSR as a discipline only seems good at producing glossy publications and fatter annual reports (go on e-mail us, you know you want to...)”
“What would happen if we changed things around a little and started talking about PSR - or product social responsibility?”
“Instead of rating corporation X against corporation Y on the basis of their pension provisions, crèche availability, emission controls or labour standards, I would compare product X with product Y and provide information relating to the product that the customer can engage with.”
“Wouldn’t this provide a platform for differentiation, a mechanism perhaps for the “good" to throw some light on the “bad” and the “ugly”?”
“As product X is the sum of all its parts, good practice would need to propagate back up the supply-chain to the suppliers of components for product X, so that a “market” for good practice becomes established.”
“If only I had the means to engage the “man on the street” in important issues.  I would need some way of sharing this information all the way along the supply-chain in a way that relates it back to the products...”
“Imagine if I could use this inforation to measure and track supply-chain performance and provide customers and stakeholders with regular updates….”