- 1. Corporate responsibility and consumer product health and
safety:Best practice and emerging issues Toby Webb,
Founder/Chairman, Ethical Corporation, Co-Founder, Stakeholder
Intelligence
2. Is product safety a corporate responsibility issue?
- At the heart of a companys basic promise to consumers
- Corporate responsibility is about integration: social with
environmental and economic
- Benefits across the different pillars from a joined-up
approach
3. Research structure
- Survey of Ethical Corporations readership about product safety
issues
- Development of assessment methodology covering Research
&Development, Processes and Management, Health and
SafetyStandards, and Communications
- Review of 15 leading consumer brands, benchmarking
publicallyavailable information against our methodology
- Interviews with a selection of companies and industry
experts
4. Reader survey: results 5. Reader survey: results 6. Reader
survey: results 7. Reader survey: results 8. Reader survey: results
9. Companies and brands benchmarked 10. Findings: Research &
DevelopmentR&D leads the way strongest results in this
criterion
- Consumer safety occupies a strong position in companies
earliest efforts to design and develop their products
- Leading companies from our benchmarking
11. Findings: Processes and Management Health and safety
processes a top priority
- Strong results in this area as brands have taken clear steps to
integrate consumer health and safety into everyday corporate
responsibility activities
- Leading companies from our benchmarking
12. Findings: Health and Safety Standards Standards an emerging
property
- Internal and external standards, and how they are used and
developed, ground corporate approach to consumer safety
- Achieved lowest overall marks in benchmarking
- Leading companies from our benchmarking
13. Findings: Communications Consumer engagement a strong
support role
- Dialogue with consumers and other stakeholders about product
safety factors demonstrates recognition of how important this for
many audiences
- Leading companies from our benchmarking
14. Conclusions Top lessons and trends: Research &
Development
- Product safety lifecycle assessment is a basic part of the
designprocess
- Analyze health and safety product profile in conjunction
withenvironmental and social factors, not in isolation
Processes and Management
- Leave nothing to chance. Product safety demands a rigorous
internalmanagement approach, with clear management
responsibilities.
- Follow-up processes especially after-sales monitoring must
berobust and part of on-going communications.
15. Conclusions
- Collaboration with competitors in the supply chain can
powerfullyidentify and address product safety issues
- Advocate for higher standards voluntary or mandatory andimprove
ability to meet consumer expectations
Standards
- Use one and two way communication tools to convey product
safetyinformation so consumers can find the information they need,
whenthey need it
- Be aware of the needs of different groups of consumers and of
howthey interact with products
Communications 16. Thank you. Questions?Contact me:
[email protected] www.ethicalcorp.com
www.stakeholderintel.com tobywebb.blogspot.com