Abstract
The Workers Beer Company is a long-established company owned by the Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Union Council in London. The Trade Council is an umbrella group bringing together trade union branches in South London to promote trade union activity and membership locally. The Company’s focus is to raise funds for ‘left’ organisations, promote trade union membership and support organisations to deliver ethical services through mobilising its volunteer base to run bars and sell drinks music festivals. Once costs are met company surpluses are either reinvested or are devoted to social purposes. This paper explores integrated CSR through a case study of an organisation that has provided support for the last 30 years at globally recognised festivals, developed ethical businesses and donated millions of pounds to good causes. The case study will use Glastonbury Festival as a focus for the legal, local government and environmental pressures that influence corporate behaviour and promote CSR.
Highlights
Public opinion and evolving attitudes to sustainable business has reignited the need to place Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in a modern academic, legal, governmental and financial framework that responds to current and future expectations linked to minimising harms and maximising benefits accruing to corporate activity
This paper explores some of these emerging concepts of CSR through a case study of a social enterprise organisation, The Workers Beer Company, that recently celebrated 30 years of selling drinks at globally recognised festivals, promoting festivals across Europe, developing ethical businesses and donating millions of pounds to trade union and broadly left-wing causes
CSR objectives can be codified and integrated through government action for example the festival management plan delivering CSR objectives; environmental stewardship, health and safety, alcohol licensing and the security of the site and visitors. This is not a theoretical discussion on how CSR may develop over the coming years, it is not an attempt to discuss the various shades of CSR or the intricate relationships between stakeholder, shareholder and customers and their respective roles in the struggles between them
Summary
A timely opportunity for this paper. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its place in contemporary thinking has rarely taken such prominence. (Lins et al 2017). Driven through exposure by the media and the speed of social media, has increased the pressure on organisations to become more aware of the impact they have on their surrounding and their stakeholders (Brondoni, 2010) In turn this has reinforced the theory of CSR to ensure that organisations should take account of the harm they may cause, rectify it and contribute some measurable benefit back into the community. An alternative approach to CSR touches on a possible shift in understanding the relationships between business, society, and the environment It will use the case study of a long established not for profit organisation, the Workers Beer Company, to look at how ethics, stakeholders and creating value can combine to underpin a successful commercial organisation. It will start with some simple definitions, explore the economic, social and environmental components as well as look at the influences that are brought to bear on understanding CSR
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
