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118 Social Responsibility Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Social responsibility is a crucial aspect of our society that involves individuals and organizations taking actions that benefit society at large. It involves being conscious of the impact of one's actions on the environment, society, and the economy. Writing an essay on social responsibility can help raise awareness about important issues and inspire others to take action. To help you get started, here are 118 social responsibility essay topic ideas and examples:

• The importance of corporate social responsibility in today's business world
• How companies can promote social responsibility through sustainable practices
• The impact of social responsibility on consumer behavior
• The role of government in promoting social responsibility
• The ethical implications of social responsibility
• The benefits of social responsibility for businesses and society
• The relationship between social responsibility and environmental sustainability
• How social responsibility can help address social inequality
• The role of social responsibility in promoting diversity and inclusion
• The impact of social responsibility on employee morale and productivity
• How social responsibility can help businesses build trust with consumers
• The challenges of implementing social responsibility initiatives
• The role of social responsibility in shaping public policy
• The impact of social responsibility on brand reputation
• The role of social responsibility in disaster relief efforts
• The benefits of social responsibility for small businesses
• The role of social responsibility in promoting ethical leadership
• The impact of social responsibility on employee retention
• The relationship between social responsibility and corporate governance
• The role of social responsibility in promoting economic development
• The challenges of measuring the impact of social responsibility initiatives
• The role of social responsibility in addressing climate change
• The impact of social responsibility on shareholder value
• The benefits of social responsibility for nonprofit organizations
• The relationship between social responsibility and social entrepreneurship
• The role of social responsibility in promoting community development
• The impact of social responsibility on organizational culture
• The challenges of balancing social responsibility with profitability
• The role of social responsibility in promoting ethical supply chain practices
• The benefits of social responsibility for employees and their families
• The relationship between social responsibility and government regulation
• The impact of social responsibility on employee engagement
• The role of social responsibility in promoting social justice
• The challenges of integrating social responsibility into business operations
• The benefits of social responsibility for investors and shareholders
• The relationship between social responsibility and corporate social responsibility reporting
• The impact of social responsibility on brand loyalty
• The role of social responsibility in promoting employee wellness programs
• The benefits of social responsibility for local communities
• The relationship between social responsibility and social media
• The impact of social responsibility on organizational performance
• The role of social responsibility in promoting ethical marketing practices
• The challenges of implementing social responsibility initiatives in developing countries
• The relationship between social responsibility and business ethics
• The impact of social responsibility on employee satisfaction
• The role of social responsibility in promoting sustainable development
• The benefits of social responsibility for customers and consumers
• The relationship between social responsibility and corporate philanthropy
• The impact of social responsibility on organizational reputation
• The role of social responsibility in promoting environmental conservation

These social responsibility essay topic ideas and examples can help you brainstorm ideas for your essay and explore different aspects of social responsibility. Whether you are writing about the role of businesses in promoting social responsibility or the impact of social responsibility on society, there are plenty of interesting topics to choose from. Remember to conduct thorough research and provide examples to support your arguments. By writing about social responsibility, you can raise awareness about important issues and inspire others to take action for the betterment of society.

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Essays About Responsibility: Top 12 Examples and Prompts

We can’t take on the challenge of life without responsibility; If you are writing essays about responsibility, discover our guide below.

The word responsibility describes the state of being accountable for our actions and is one of the main elements that make us human. We are not born with it; instead, it is something to be exercised and improved on over time.

It has often been said that with power or freedom comes responsibility, which could not be more truthful. Each of us is gifted with the ability to make choices, and we are considered superior to all other living things on this planet. However, we have to make informed choices and be responsible for our actions, whether to ourselves, the people around us, and our environment.

5 Top Essay Examples

1. the value of responsibility by simon baker, 2. freedom is not the lack of constraint, but the exercise of responsibility by beulah west, 3. why responsibility is so important by steve rose.

• 4.  The Beneifts of Being Responsible by Frank Terzo
• 5. ​​What It’s like to Feel Responsible for Everything by Duncan Riach

1. The Importance of Responsibility

2. dealing with false responsibility, 3. freedom and responsibility, 4. what is social responsibility, 5. what are your responsibilities, 6. responsibility as a component of success, 7. a time you acted responsibly.

“It’s easy for us to become blinkered or out-of-touch when we’re constantly working with our heads down. Although meeting our commitments is hugely important we bear another responsibility, that is to invest in ourselves and in each other. When we can free our imagination and refresh our minds, we restore perspective and reduce stress. We find time and space to explore new ways to collaborate, be creative and enjoy ourselves to the benefit of our mission.”

Baker writes about why he thinks responsibility is important and discusses factors related to responsibility, namely trust, personal choice, and freedom. A feeling of trust allows you to be more comfortable accepting responsibility, while responsibility allows us to maximize personal choice and freedom. Most importantly, bearing responsibility means freeing our minds, enjoying life, and coming up with great ideas. 

“A lack of constraint means that you can not do everything that you want. In a perfect world this would be fine, but we don’t live in a perfect world. However everyone’s view of a perfect world is different, if this coincides with the law and you are happy, then you can be free still living under laws and legislations. If you believe that freedom is making your own choices then the only way that we can be “free” is if society does not exist.”

West discusses how just as personal freedom is vital to a healthy society, so is accountability for our actions. Freedom also has a negative side; it can be described as a lack of constraint in our choices. Without constraint, our actions may hurt others or even ourselves. Therefore, it must come with the responsibility to make these choices from a more thoughtful, educated perspective. 

You might also be interested in our list of essays about effective leadership . You can also check out these articles and essays about attitude .

“Taking responsibility creates long term resilience and a sense of purpose. This sense of purpose can be fostered by taking responsibility for one’s self by engaging in self-care. Responsibility can also be developed on a familial and societal level, offering a sense of purpose proportional to your ability to contribute your unique abilities.”

Rose explores the importance of being responsible for one’s health. It gives us a sense of purpose and helps us build resilience; however, we must first be responsible for ourselves by practicing self-care. This includes resting, exercising, taking breaks, and going to the doctor if something is bothering us. This makes us more responsible for the people around us, allowing us to perform different societal roles. You might be inspired by these essays about success and essays about overcoming challenges .

4.   The Beneifts of Being Responsible by Frank Terzo

“If we take care of our commitments, even if it something we might like to ignore, we feel better about ourselves. Each step we take towards being responsible and productive helps to raise our self-esteem and our relationships with friends, family and co-workers improve ten-fold. Being responsible pays big dividends – we have much less stress and chaos in our lives and we gain the respect of others.”

In this short essay, Terzo provides insight into the many benefits responsibility can provide you with. We must always be responsible, even if we might not feel like it, because it can improve our productivity, self-esteem, relationships with others, and overall peace. Though it might not always be easy, responsibility is key to achieving a happy life. 

5. ​​ What It’s like to Feel Responsible for Everything by Duncan Riach

“I hold responsibility when others are not taking responsibility. I was holding all of the responsibility, guilt, and shame that Billy McFarland was disowning. It’s a survival mechanism that I developed when I was a child. I had a step-father who was some form of psychopath or malignant narcissist, a person who was completely out of control and completely irresponsible. The only way that I could feel safe in that environment was to try to hold the responsibility myself.”

Riach reflects on a habit by which he constantly felt responsible for things out of his control, things as minor as events he saw on television. He developed this habit due to his upbringing- his childhood and family life were less than ideal. He is fully aware of his problem but still struggles with it. His case is an excellent example of false responsibility. 

6 Writing Prompts on Essays About Responsibility

Responsibility is, without a doubt, essential, but how important is it really? Reflect on the meaning of responsibility and explain its importance. Discuss this from a practical and personal standpoint; combine personal experience and research as the basis for your points. 

False responsibility is an attitude by which one feels responsible for things they are not. This is a widespread issue that encompasses everyone, from humble workers to some of the most influential people in the world. For your essay, research this phenomenon, then define it and explain why it occurs. Give suggestions on how one can identify false responsibility and work to stop feeling that way. 

The topics of freedom and personal responsibility are deeply intertwined; for freedom to work correctly, there must be a certain level of responsibility instilled in people so society can function correctly. In your essay, discuss these two concepts and their connection. Do proper research on this topic, then conclude this issue: are we responsible enough to be given total freedom? You may also link this to topics such as the law and regulations. You might be inspired by these essays about goals .

Social Responsibility seems straightforward and self-defining, but it is broad, especially with society putting a higher value on awareness, community, and social justice. Research this term and its history and discuss it in your essay; define and explain it, then describe what it means. 

Whether in your studies or at work, as a family member, friend, or even a member of society, we have a unique set of responsibilities that vary depending on the person. Reflect on the different roles you play in life and decide what your responsibilities are. Briefly describe each one and explain how you fulfill these responsibilities. You can also check out these essays about conflict .

This value is important because it is present in all successful individuals. Based on your opinions and research, discuss the relationship between responsibility, success, and some other factors or traits that influence success. Give examples of successful people who have shown responsibility, such as government officials, celebrities, and business leaders. 

When we are responsible, we are pretty proud of ourselves most of the time. Think of an experience you are most proud of in which you acted responsibly. Retell the story, reflect on how you felt, and explain why it is important- be as detailed as possible. Or, you may opt to do the opposite, telling the story of a time you did not show responsibility and thinking of what you would do if given a chance to repeat it. 

Grammarly is one of our top grammar checkers. Find out why in this Grammarly review . Tip: If writing an essay sounds like a lot of work, simplify it. Write a simple 5 paragraph essay instead.

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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5 Examples of Corporate Social Responsibility That Were Successful

• 06 Jun 2019

Business is about more than just making a profit. Climate change, economic inequality, and other global challenges that impact communities worldwide have compelled companies to be purpose-driven and contribute to the greater good .

In a recent study by Deloitte , 93 percent of business leaders said they believe companies aren't just employers, but stewards of society. In addition, 95 percent reported they’re planning to take a stronger stance on large-scale issues in the coming years and devote significant resources to socially responsible initiatives. With more CEOs turning their focus to the long term, it’s important to consider what you can do in your career to make an impact .

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business model in which for-profit companies seek ways to create social and environmental benefits while pursuing organizational goals, like revenue growth and maximizing shareholder value .

Today’s organizations are implementing extensive corporate social responsibility programs, with many companies dedicating C-level executive roles and entire departments to social and environmental initiatives. These executives are commonly referred to as a chief officer of corporate social responsibility or chief sustainability officer (CSO).

There are many types of corporate social responsibility and CSR might look different for each organization, but the end goal is always the same: Do well by doing good . Companies that embrace corporate social responsibility aim to maintain profitability while supporting a larger purpose.

Rather than simply focusing on generating profit, or the bottom line, socially responsible companies are concerned with the triple bottom line , which considers the impact that business decisions have on profit, people, and the planet.

It’s no coincidence that some of today’s most profitable organizations are also socially responsible. Here are five examples of successful corporate social responsibility you can use to drive social change at your organization.

5 Corporate Social Responsibility Examples

1. lego’s commitment to sustainability.

As one of the most reputable companies in the world, Lego aims to not only help children develop through creative play, but foster a healthy planet.

Lego is the first, and only, toy company to be named a World Wildlife Fund Climate Savers Partner , marking its pledge to reduce its carbon impact. And its commitment to sustainability extends beyond its partnerships.

By 2030, the toymaker plans to use environmentally friendly materials to produce all of its core products and packaging—and it’s already taken key steps to achieve that goal.

Over the course of 2013 and 2014, Lego shrunk its box sizes by 14 percent , saving approximately 7,000 tons of cardboard. Then, in 2018, the company introduced 150 botanical pieces made from sustainably sourced sugarcane —a break from the petroleum-based plastic typically used to produce the company’s signature building blocks. The company has also recently committed to removing all single-use plastic packaging from its materials by 2025, among other initiatives .

Along with these changes, the toymaker has committed to investing $164 million into its Sustainable Materials Center , where researchers are experimenting with bio-based materials that can be implemented into the production process.

Through all of these initiatives, Lego is well on its way to tackling pressing environmental challenges and furthering its mission to help build a more sustainable future.

Related : What Does "Sustainability" Mean in Business?

2. Salesforce’s 1-1-1 Philanthropic Model

Beyond being a leader in the technology space, cloud-based software giant Salesforce is a trailblazer in the realm of corporate philanthropy.

Since its outset, the company has championed its 1-1-1 philanthropic model , which involves giving one percent of product, one percent of equity, and one percent of employees’ time to communities and the nonprofit sector.

To date, Salesforce employees have logged more than 5 million volunteer hours . Not only that, but the company has awarded upwards of $406 million in grants and donated to more than 40,000 nonprofit organizations and educational institutions.

In addition, through its work with San Francisco Unified and Oakland Unified School Districts, Salesforce has helped reduce algebra repeat rates and contributed to a high percentage of students receiving A’s or B’s in computer science classes.

As the company’s revenue continues to grow, Salesforce stands as a prime example of the idea that profit-making and social impact initiatives don’t have to be at odds with one another.

3. Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission

At Ben & Jerry’s, positively impacting society is just as important as producing premium ice cream.

In 2012, the company became a certified B Corporation , a business that balances purpose and profit by meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.

As part of its overarching commitment to leading with progressive values, the ice cream maker established the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation in 1985, an organization dedicated to supporting grassroots movements that drive social change.

Each year, the foundation awards approximately $2.5 million in grants to organizations in Vermont and across the United States. Grant recipients have included the United Workers Association, a human rights group striving to end poverty, and the Clean Air Coalition, an environmental health and justice organization based in New York.

The foundation’s work earned it a National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy Award in 2014, and it continues to sponsor efforts to find solutions to systemic problems at both local and national levels.

Related : How to Create Social Change: 4 Business Strategies

4. Levi Strauss’s Social Impact

In addition to being one of the most successful fashion brands in history, Levi’s is also one of the first to push for a more ethical and sustainable supply chain.

In 1991, the brand created its Terms of Engagement , which established its global code of conduct regarding its supply chain and set standards for workers’ rights, a safe work environment, and an environmentally-friendly production process.

To maintain its commitment in a changing world, Levi’s regularly updates its Terms of Engagement. In 2011, on the 20th anniversary of its code of conduct, Levi’s announced its Worker Well-being initiative to implement further programs focused on the health and well-being of supply chain workers.

Since 2011, the Worker Well-being initiative has been expanded to 12 countries and more than 100,000 workers have benefited from it. In 2016, the brand scaled up the initiative, vowing to expand the program to more than 300,000 workers and produce more than 80 percent of its product in Worker Well-being factories by 2025.

For its continued efforts to maintain the well-being of its people and the environment, Levi’s was named one of Engage for Good’s 2020 Golden Halo Award winners, which is the highest honor reserved for socially responsible companies.

5. Starbucks’s Commitment to Ethical Sourcing

Starbucks launched its first corporate social responsibility report in 2002 with the goal of becoming as well-known for its CSR initiatives as for its products. One of the ways the brand has fulfilled this goal is through ethical sourcing.

In 2015, Starbucks verified that 99 percent of its coffee supply chain is ethically sourced , and it seeks to boost that figure to 100 percent through continued efforts and partnerships with local coffee farmers and organizations.

The brand bases its approach on Coffee and Farmer Equity (CAFE) Practices , one of the coffee industry’s first set of ethical sourcing standards created in collaboration with Conservation International . CAFE assesses coffee farms against specific economic, social, and environmental standards, ensuring Starbucks can source its product while maintaining a positive social impact.

For its work, Starbucks was named one of the world’s most ethical companies in 2021 by Ethisphere.

The Value of Being Socially Responsible

As these firms demonstrate , a deep and abiding commitment to corporate social responsibility can pay dividends. By learning from these initiatives and taking a values-driven approach to business, you can help your organization thrive and grow, even as it confronts global challenges.

Do you want to gain a deeper understanding of the broader social and political landscape in which your organization operates? Explore our three-week Sustainable Business Strategy course and other online courses regarding business in society to learn more about how business can be a catalyst for system-level change.

This post was updated on April 15, 2022. It was originally published on June 6, 2019.

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Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Samples And Topic Ideas For Free

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) represents a business model where companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and interactions with stakeholders. Essays on CSR could explore its evolution from philanthropic initiatives to a core strategic component of business operations, reflecting broader societal expectations of corporate ethics and sustainability. Discussions might delve into various CSR models and frameworks, and how they are implemented across different industries and cultural contexts. The discourse could extend to the examination of notable CSR initiatives, their impact on communities, and the balance between profit-making and social responsibility. Moreover, essays might explore the challenges and opportunities of CSR, such as greenwashing, stakeholder engagement, and the integration of sustainable practices. The implications of CSR on corporate governance, ethical leadership, and the broader societal shift towards sustainability and ethical consumerism could also be captivating areas of exploration. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about Corporate Social Responsibility you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Behavior in Corporations

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Corporate Social Responsibility against Cancer

Abstract As an assistant manager at Kenta Law Firm, based in Monroe, I intend to collaborate with the Susan B. Komen Foundation a non-organization corporation that is interested in reducing issues of breast cancer among women. Kenta law firm has noted that a significant populace of Monroe’s youth especially women and young children specifically those who are homeless are suffering from breast cancer. In this CSR partnership, our law firm will collaborate with the Susan B. Komen Foundation in addressing […]

Walmart’s Use of Databases

Introduction Walmart takes their data collection very seriously. They realize how useful data can be to them in a number of fashions. But what kind of data does Walmart collect, and how do they use this data? Does Walmart's data collection expose their paying customers to risks? Walmart uses statistics of flow of customers, purchase records, personal contact information, and internal and external market research (among others) to comprise their data to help them make better business decisions. Walmart uses […]

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Different Perspectives on the Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility

When it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility, an organization should choose wisely what it stands for. Friedman and Carroll have different perspectives on the concept of CSR. Friedman argues that social responsibility in a company is all about the economic value and how much profit is being made. He believes that any money used for charitable activities that benefit the society is an inappropriate use of shareholders' money as it does not generate any revenue directly. He emphasizes following the […]

Milton Friedman and Social Responsibility

Friedman do not affirm that the executives can act in any way as are used in accordance with the law and follow the ethical custom. But he closed the charity activity since they do not contribute straight to the victory. An upright overview of organization activities in the views of Friedman's agreement is simply not that carry out happenings simply since they are ethical, but since they are economically feasible. One of the main reasons for Friedman to the exclusion […]

Case Study – Lancaster Caramel Company

Introduction Hershey’s is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers that aims to continue expanding worldwide. The beginning of Hershey’s company was when Milton S. Hershey found Lancaster Caramel Company in the 19th century in Pennsylvania. He made his wealth by producing caramel pieces as the first product before turning into chocolate production. The idea of making chocolate came after he started covering the caramel pieces with chocolate, many people were impressed and attracted to the taste of the chocolate coat. […]

Business Ethics and TechFite

TechFite is a U.K-based company that has done well, even though their operations within a new multicultural environment, the United States, have been challenging. With their community and employee-focused organizational structure, the company has successfully empowered their members by including leadership development and facilitating strong coworker relationships. TechFite also maintains high standards by properly compensating employees for their contributions to the company as a whole. In addition, their highly respected environmental ethos is a major plus for the future direction […]

Review on Businesses Without Values and Ethics

This review will study the impact of ethical leadership, of employees, performance in an organization. The progress of an organization's achievements is based on the employees. The employees are considered an important resource to achieve competitive advantages. An ethical leader who shares its authority with employees will improve their performance. So, if leaders set the precedence for upholding high ethical values then the employee will follow suit. On the other hand, if leaders do not have an ethical value and […]

Ethics and the Business Professional

Evaluate your own performance as a morally responsible group member. Which behaviors do you demonstrate? Which do you need to develop? What specific steps might you take to improve? The concept of moral responsibility implies that a person can be evaluated with praise or blame for actions based on a moral code. Moral responsibility suggests that the person is in control of her actions and no other element in the decision-making process interferes with the person's control of the situation. […]

Milton Friedmen and CSR

Social responsibility can be viewed as a vital aspect of people's lives across the globe. Lately, it has also become one of the major increasing concerns in the business world. As a result, interactions between businesses, society, and government have greatly developed. In addition, the standard view of a business's social responsibility holds that it should involve actions that maximize its profit according to Milton Friedman. Contrasting to this view is the socioeconomic outlook of social responsibility which believes that […]

My Research on Starbucks

According to Management principles learned in business, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is valued not just by a business but also by the consumer. Despite some businesses recording massive successes in practicing CSR, other entities or organizations are conflicted about its benefits. I decided to pick and explore Starbucks because of its enormous social standpoint. CSR plays a significant role in the success of Starbucks. The company uses CSR as a long-term strategy, leading to the sustainability of its magnificent brand […]

Implementation of the Environmental Disclosure Requirement in Australian Service Industry

The issue of environmental conservation has been a primary subject in many countries across the world. Concerns raised in respect to the subject often stem from the negative effects environmental pollution has demonstrated worldwide. Over the previous decades, a wealth of literature has surfaced from the social accounting sector, indicating a continuous growth in the extent of social disclosure appearing in corporate annual reports. Specifically, the level of environmental disclosures has consistently increased compared to past decades. In Australia, for […]

Managing Sustainability Development

Executive summary Sustainable development practices for any organization have to be informed by the goals of the company. For Vodafone Company in New Zealand, the goals of the company are to produce quality cell phones, conserve the environment and encourage young people to work hard and be responsible citizens. The project will be undertaken to evaluate how the company can improve efficiency in operations and at the same time maintain the profit margin as it stands. The company is thus […]

What is Sustainability in Business?

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Sustainability Community Engagement and Diversity Inclusion Review BA

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Kenneth Lay: a Study in Corporate Misconduct and its Impact

Kenneth Lay, the former CEO of Enron Corporation, remains an emblematic figure in the annals of corporate fraud and mismanagement. His story serves as a crucial lesson in ethics, leadership, and the consequences of corporate malfeasance. In understanding Lay's role in the Enron scandal, we delve into a narrative that intertwines personal ambition with a catastrophic lapse in corporate governance, leading to one of the most infamous collapses in American business history. Kenneth Lay, born in 1942 in Missouri, rose […]

Value-transmission in Multinational Corporations

The case study is a good exercise for contemplating value-transmission in multinational corporations and shows the difficulty of staying committed to development in the countries of operation. IKEA Case Study IKEA’s global sourcing challenge with Indian rugs and child labor exhibits the challenges and complexities of conducting international business. This case is particularly interesting because it shines light on a company’s response to new issues in corporate social responsibility brought about by globalization. The events take place at a time […]

Social Problems of the Company

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The Corporate Gentrification

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Ethics, Sustainability and CSR

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What Is Social Responsibility?

Understanding social responsibility, areas of focus.

• Socially Responsible Corporations

The Bottom Line

• Business Essentials

Social Responsibility in Business: Meaning, Types, Examples, and Criticism

Social responsibility is an ethical focus for individuals and companies whereby they seek to take action and be accountable for practices that benefit society. Social responsibility has become increasingly important to investors and consumers who seek investments that not only are profitable but also contribute to the welfare of society and the environment.

While critics have traditionally argued that the basic nature of business does not consider society as a stakeholder , younger generations are embracing social responsibility and driving change.

Key Takeaways

• Social responsibility means that besides maximizing shareholder value, businesses should operate in a way that benefits society.
• Socially responsible companies should adopt policies that promote the well-being of society and the environment while lessening negative impacts on them.
• Companies can act responsibly in many ways, such as by promoting volunteering, making changes that benefit the environment, engaging in ethical labor practices, and engaging in charitable giving.
• Consumers are more actively looking to buy goods and services from socially responsible companies, hence impacting their profitability.
• Critics assert that practicing social responsibility is the opposite of why businesses exist.

Michela Buttignol / Investopedia

Social responsibility means that individuals and companies must act in the best interests of their environment and society as a whole. As it applies to business, social responsibility is known as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and is becoming a more prominent area of focus within businesses due to shifting social norms.

The crux of this theory is to enact policies that promote an ethical balance between the dual mandates of striving for profitability and benefiting society as a whole. These policies can be either commission (philanthropy: donations of money, time, or resources) or omission (e.g., “go green” initiatives such as reducing greenhouse gasses or abiding by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations to limit pollution).

Many companies, such as those with “green” policies, have made social responsibility an integral part of their business models , and they have done so without compromising profitability.

Additionally, more consciously capitalistic investors and consumers are factoring in a company’s commitment to socially responsible practices before making an investment or purchase. As such, embracing social responsibility can benefit the prime directive: maximization of shareholder value.

There is a moral imperative as well. Actions—or the lack thereof—will affect future generations. Put simply, social responsibility is just good business practice, and a failure to do so can have a deleterious effect on the balance sheet.

Social responsibility can also boost company morale, especially when a company can engage employees with its social causes.

In general, social responsibility is more effective when a company takes it on voluntarily instead of waiting for the government to require them to do so through regulation.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) emphasizes that a business’s ability to maintain a balance between pursuing economic performance and adhering to societal and environmental issues is a critical factor in operating efficiently and effectively.

The key ways that a company embraces social responsibility include philanthropy, promoting volunteering, ethical labor practices, and environmental changes.

For example, companies managing their environmental impact might look to reduce their carbon footprint and limit waste. There’s also the social responsibility of ethical practices for employees, which can mean offering a fair wage, which arises when there are limited employee protection laws.

Examples of Socially Responsible Corporations

Social responsibility takes on different meanings within industries and companies. For example:

• Starbucks Corp. ( SBUX ) committed to social responsibility from the start, including sustainability and community welfare. It purchases Fair Trade Certified ingredients to manufacture products and actively supports sustainable farming in the regions where ingredients are sourced.
• Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Holdings Inc. has integrated social responsibility into the core of its operations. Like Starbucks, the company purchases Fair Trade Certified ingredients.
• Salesforce.com Inc. ( CRM ) developed what it calls the 1-1-1 model. The company dedicates 1% of its equity, 1% of its product, and 1% of its employees’ time back to the community.
• Big-box retailer Target Corp. ( TGT ), also well known for its social responsibility programs, has donated money to communities in which the stores operate, including education grants.

Criticism of Corporate Social Responsibility

Not everyone believes that businesses should have a social conscience. Economist Milton Friedman stated that “‘social responsibilities of business’ are notable for their analytical looseness and lack of rigor.” Friedman believed that only individuals can have a sense of social responsibility. Businesses, by their very nature, cannot. Some experts believe that social responsibility defies the very point of being in business: profit above all else.

However, social responsibility has become more mainstream and is now practiced among a wide range of companies. Younger generations, such as millennials and Gen Z , are embracing social responsibility and driving change in the workplace and as consumers.

What Are Examples of Social Responsibility?

Social responsibility includes companies engaging in environmental preservation efforts, ethical labor practices, philanthropy, and promoting volunteering. For example, a company may change its manufacturing process to reduce carbon emissions.

What Are the Main Benefits of Social Responsibility?

Benefiting society and lessening the negative impacts on the environment are among the main benefits of social responsibility. Consumers are increasingly looking to buy goods and services from socially responsible companies, which can have a positive impact on their bottom line.

How Does Social Responsibility Benefit Companies?

In addition to potentially increasing the bottom line, companies that implement social responsibility programs can also boost their brand image. Social responsibility programs can also have a positive impact on morale among employees.

Social responsibility benefits society and the environment while lessening negative impacts on them. Companies engaging in social responsibility can do so in a number of ways, including making changes that benefit the environment, engaging in ethical labor practices, and promoting volunteering, and philanthropy. Consumers are more actively looking to do business with socially responsible companies , which can also benefit bottom lines.

Lu, Hao and et al. " How Do Investors Value Corporate Social Responsibility? Market Valuation and The Firm Specific Contexts ." Journal of Business Research , vol. 125, March 2021, pp. 14-25.

International Organization for Standardization. " Standards ."

International Organization for Standardization. " ISO and Small & Medium Enterprises ."

Starbucks. “ Starbucks Ethical Sourcing of Sustainable Products .”

Starbucks. “ Becoming Resource Positive .”

Ben and Jerry’s. “ Fairtrade .”

Ben and Jerry’s. “ Our Values and Mission .”

Salesforce. “ How Far Can the 1-1-1 Model Go? This Tech Darling Has a Unique Approach .”

Target. " Offering Debt-Free Degrees to More Than 340,000 Target Team Members? Now That’s a Smart Move ."

Target. “ Sustainability & Governance .”

The New York Times. “ A Friedman Doctrine—The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits .”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management. “ Social Responsibility Matters to Business — A Different View from Milton Friedman from 50 Years Ago .”

• Guide to Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) 1 of 22
• Why Social Responsibility Matters to Businesses 2 of 22
• Investing in Unethical Stocks: Pros and Cons for Traders 3 of 22
• Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) vs. Sin Stocks 4 of 22
• Racial Justice Investing: What It is, How It Works 5 of 22
• The Top 5 Impact Investing Firms 6 of 22
• Socially Responsible Mutual Funds 7 of 22
• The Rise of the Socially Responsible ETFs 8 of 22
• Demand for ESG Investments Soars Emerging From COVID-19 Pandemic 9 of 22
• A Guide to Faith-Based Investing 10 of 22
• Socially Responsible Investment for Gender Empowerment 11 of 22
• A History of Impact Investing 12 of 22
• Impact Investing vs. Venture Philanthropy 13 of 22
• How Do ESG, SRI, and Impact Funds Differ? 14 of 22
• Ethical Investing: Overview and How To Do It 15 of 22
• Social Responsibility in Business: Meaning, Types, Examples, and Criticism 16 of 22
• What Is CSR? Corporate Social Responsibility Explained 17 of 22
• What Is ESG Investing? 18 of 22
• Conscious Capitalism: Definition, 4 Principles, and Company Examples 19 of 22
• Social Impact Statement: Meaning, Criticisms, Example 20 of 22
• Social Impact Bond (SIB): Definition, How It Works, and Example 21 of 22
• Impact Investing: Definition, Types, and Examples 22 of 22

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Essay on Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is a term that has been used in different contexts, including the economy, education, politics , and religion. Social responsibility is challenging because it encompasses so many aspects, and there is no single definition of social responsibility. In simple words, social responsibility is the responsibility of an individual to act in a way that promotes social well-being. This means that a person has a sense of obligation to society and sacrifices for the good of others. BYJU’S essay on social responsibility explains the importance of being a socially responsible citizen.

A society’s responsibility to the individuals in that society can be seen through the various social programmes and laws. Governments try to create a better world for their citizens, so they implement various social programmes like welfare, tax assistance, and unemployment benefits. Laws are also crucial to a society because they enforce practical actions by its citizens and punish harmful actions. Now, let us understand the significance of social responsibility by reading a short essay on social responsibility.

Importance of Social Responsibility

BYJU’S essay on social responsibility highlights the importance of doing good deeds for society. The short essay lists different ways people can contribute to social responsibility, such as donating time and money to charities and giving back by visiting places like hospitals or schools. This essay discusses how companies can support specific causes and how people can be actively involved in volunteering and organisations to help humanitarian efforts.

Social responsibility is essential in many aspects of life. It helps to bring people together and also promotes respect for others. Social responsibility can be seen in how you treat other people, behave outside of work, and contribute to the world around you. In addition, there are many ways to be responsible for the protection of the environment, and recycling is one way. It is crucial to recycle materials to conserve resources, create less pollution, and protect the natural environment.

Society is constantly changing, and the way people live their lives may also vary. It is crucial to keep up with new technology so that it doesn’t negatively impact everyone else. Social responsibility is key to making sure that society is prosperous. For example, social media has created a platform for people to share their experiences and insights with other people. If a company were going to develop a new product or service, it would be beneficial for them to survey people about what they think about the idea before implementing it because prior knowledge can positively impact future decisions.

Social responsibility is essential because it creates a sense of responsibility to the environment . It can lead to greater trust among members of society. Another reason is that companies could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage if they do not ensure their practices are socially responsible. Moreover, companies help people in need through money, time, and clothing, which is a great way to showcase social responsibility.

Being socially responsible is a great responsibility of every human being, and we have briefly explained this in the short essay on social responsibility. Moreover, being socially responsible helps people upgrade the environment and society. For more essays, click on BYJU’S kids learning activities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does being socially responsible help in protecting the environment.

Yes. Being socially responsible helps in protecting the environment.

Why should we be socially responsible?

We should be socially responsible because it is the right thing to upgrade society and the environment. Another reason is to help those in need because when more people have jobs, the economy can thrive, and people will have more opportunities.

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From there to here: 50 years of thinking on the social responsibility of business

It has now been 50 years since economist Milton Friedman asked and answered a fundamental question: What is the role of business in society?

Friedman’s stance was plain: “There is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits.” That view has long influenced management thinking, corporate governance, and strategic moves. But more recently, many leaders have sought to expand that definition to consider all the stakeholders who stand to gain—or lose—from organizations’ decisions.

In 2019, Business Roundtable released a new “Statement on the purpose of a corporation,” signed by 181 CEOs who committed to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders. The statement outlined a modern standard for corporate responsibility.

On the 50th anniversary of Friedman’s landmark definition, we look at how the conversation on corporate purpose  has evolved.

The pre-1970 conversation

Even before Friedman’s essay published, the social responsibility of business was a topic of discussion. McKinsey, for example, was part of the early conversation about corporate purpose, which centered on the idea of improving performance and a belief that healthier corporations meant a healthier society. The firm’s earliest formal expression of its objectives spoke of the value of “advancing the profitableness and welfare of American business and hence the welfare of the country as a whole” (1937).

The discussion of corporations’ role in society continued to unfold in the 1950s and 1960s, when Columbia University and McKinsey presented a lecture series in which executives discussed the challenges of large organizations. Many of those talks became books that addressed the issues Friedman would soon take on.

Friedman’s seminal 1970 essay

On September 13, 1970, when Friedman published his landmark piece, “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” in the New York Times , he wrote:

In a free-enterprise, private-property system, a corporate executive is an employee of the owners of the business. He has direct responsibility to his employers. That responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to their basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom.

Like many businesses and thinkers, McKinsey has grappled with such ideas over the years. A 1971 statement of the firm’s goals highlights the role of profitability but acknowledges that it isn’t the sole social responsibility of business; consultants can also “do worthwhile things for society as well as to earn substantial financial rewards.”

Marvin Bower—McKinsey’s managing director from 1950 to 1967, who remained a vocal leader even after stepping down—also continued to emphasize the importance of enduring business values, which could be translated into societal as well as business impact:

Outside the service for which we are compensated, each of us has an opportunity, through the firm, to serve the society of which [we are] a part. Our knowledge of the problem-solving process enables us to contribute disproportionately to the welfare of our communities.

The 1980s and 1990s: An expanded global view

Management attention started to go global in the 1980s. The business world examined how Japanese companies in particular were revolutionizing manufacturing to compete against once-dominant Western players. Political and social changes were also afoot, and the shift toward globalization took hold.

McKinsey managing director Fred Gluck (1988–94) called on the firm to raise its sights and expand its horizons:

Beginning with a memo not two weeks before the Berlin Wall came down, he urged his partners to expand their vision beyond their usual business clients. As the world’s best problem solvers, he argued, McKinsey should aspire to advise national and world leaders on global issues like poverty, European integration, and the environment. It should help design and implement the reforms that were certain to follow in the wake of the revolutions unfolding in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Asia. Though not universally shared, Gluck’s call to action struck a chord with many firm leaders. … They were being challenged to help change the world.

The McKinsey Global Institute was founded in this era, looking to generate fresh insights through serious research that integrated the disciplines of economics and management. And although work continued to prize financial impact for clients, the thinking around future impact continued to expand.

The 2000s and 2010s: A focus on longer-term, inclusive growth

Technological advances may have facilitated globalization, but the dot-com crash of the early 2000s and ensuing changes—to say nothing of the global financial crisis of 2008—brought discussion on the social responsibility of business into the zeitgeist.

In a 2006 interview, McKinsey’s former London office manager Peter Foy reflected:

I have real misgivings about the way that [business] changed. Because the minute the world … changed from building great companies and keeping shareholders happy to serving shareholders on a quarterly delivery, wealth-creation basis … you changed everything in the business system. The motivation of the CEO, and the organization, and the time you spend on it all.

The conversations also entered the realm of public ideas. One particularly powerful statement in the March 2011 Harvard Business Review article “ Capitalism for the long term ,” penned by McKinsey managing partner Dominic Barton, called for business-led reform to go beyond quarterly capitalism:

This shift is not just about persistently thinking and acting with a next-generation view—although that’s a key part of it. It’s about rewiring the fundamental ways we govern, manage, and lead corporations. It’s also about changing how we view business’s value and its role in society.

Barton later helped found the not-for-profit Focusing Capital on the Long Term, which encourages long-term investing and business decision making.

Additionally, the McKinsey Quarterly marked its 50-year anniversary  with a special edition on the future of management. One key theme: Corporate longevity and a long-term view of performance.

2019, the Business Roundtable statement, and what lies ahead

On August 19, 2019, the Business Roundtable issued its latest statement on the purpose of a corporation :

Businesses play a vital role in the economy by creating jobs, fostering innovation and providing essential goods and services. Businesses make and sell consumer products; manufacture equipment and vehicles; support the national defense; grow and produce food; provide health care; generate and deliver energy; and offer financial, communications and other services that underpin economic growth. While each of our individual companies serves its own corporate purpose, we share a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders.

The statement was endorsed by 181 CEOs (along with McKinsey global managing partner Kevin Sneader ), each committing to leading their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders.

Echoes of that statement continue to resonate today, even as leaders navigate crises and contemplate the next normal beyond coronavirus . As Marc Goedhart and Tim Koller note in “ The value of value creation ”: “Long-term value creation can—and should—take into account the interests of all stakeholders.” And Sneader and his coauthors underscore it as a top-management ethos in a new article on the CEO moment :

[The] COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the profound interconnectedness between businesses and the broader world in which they operate. … Employees, customers, and stakeholders expect a CEO to articulate where the company stands on critical issues.

What lies ahead on this topic? Write to us .

This article was conceptualized, illustrated, and edited by McKinsey Global Publishing colleagues Mike Borruso , Torea Frey , Gwyn Herbein ,  Philip Mathew , Janet Michaud , and Nathan Wilson , with Paul Lasewicz , our archivist, guiding us on this walk through history.

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Related articles.

Corporate Purpose

Purpose: Shifting from why to how

The value of value creation

18 Social Responsibility Examples (Personal and Corporate)

Social responsibility is when a person or organization takes action that will benefit others or society. That action can involve a simple gesture of kindness such as helping the elderly, or a grand gesture that involves moving to a third-world country to help the poor.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is another form of social responsibility that has been growing for several decades. Large companies realize there are many benefits to improving society and the environment.

Similarly, famous scholars such as John Dewey advocated that schools should instill a sense of social responsibility in their students.

Dewey (1899) wrote:

“When the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely and harmonious.” (p. 27-28).

The belief that you have an obligation to step in and help when you have the ability, without expectation of reciprocation, is called the social responsibility norm .

Everyday Social Responsibility Examples

• Donating blood: Bob donates blood every other month because he has type A-, which is quite rare.
• Recycling: The McDermotts are avid recyclers. It’s a family custom they have been practicing for years.
• Donating old clothes: Linda and her classmates have started a campaign at school to donate old clothes to various shelters in their city.
• Planting trees: Teenagers in this country plant trees on land that was once cleared for growing soy beans but is now abandoned.
• Mowing your neighbor’s lawn: Once a week, Stan mows the lawn of the elderly gentleman down the street.
• Picking up trash: The local Boy Scouts pick up trash along the beach every month and then sort it properly for recycling.
• Volunteering at animal shelter: Jenna volunteers at the local animal shelter for strays every Saturday.
• Working at a soup kitchen: Every Thanksgiving, the Garcia family work at a soup kitchen for the homeless.
• Helping out the poor: The Singh family help repair houses for people living in poverty on the outskirts of the city.
• International development: Every summer vacation Billy travels to a third-world country to help dig wells for the poor.
• Caring for the lonely: Jessie sees a kid in the schoolyard who doesn’t have anyone to eat lunch with, so she invites her to have lunch with her.
• Tithing: Many religious people give a tithe – which is 10% of their income – to their church in order to support the church’s mission.
• Volunteer firefighting: Many people choose to become volunteer firefighters to protect their community if a wildfire breaks out.

Related: The Different Types of Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility Examples

Case study #1: lego and sustainability.

Corporations that make products contribute to a lot of environmental degradation. Factories emit pollutants into the air and waterways, plastics stay in the environment for centuries, and product packaging accumulates in landfills.  

However, increasingly more companies are finding ways to alter their operations in ways that support sustainability .

For example, according to the Harvard Business School , Lego has made a substantial commitment to integrating sustainability practices into all facets of their operations .

Here are a few great examples of Lego’s commitment to the environment:

Lego has shrunk its boxes by 14 percent, which has saved 7,000 tons of cardboard.

In 2018, the company introduced 150 pieces made from sustainably sourced sugarcane instead of from petroleum-based plastic.

The company has also committed to investing $164 million into its Sustainable Materials Center .

Lego has stated :

“ It’s our aim that by the end of 2025, all our packaging will be made from sustainably sourced materials that are either renewable, or made from recycled content and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.”

Case Study #2: Starbucks and Three Pillars

Starbucks is well-known for having a store on nearly every corner of a city, no matter where you live. With over 20,000 stores in 160 countries, they are one of the largest corporations in the world. From plastic straws to paper cups, the company generates a lot of waste.

However, the company is also a leader when it comes to corporate social responsibility. The CSR initiative of Starbucks rests upon three pillars: Community, Ethical Sourcing, and the Environment.

• Community : Starbucks establishes community stores that donate a percentage of sales to nearby charities. The company also hires youth from within the community as part of their overall commitment to inclusion and diversity.
• Ethical Sourcing : This pillar has to do with where the company purchases the materials it needs. Starbucks only purchases coffee, tea, cocoa and manufactured goods from farmers and suppliers that adhere to strict ethical standards of treating its employees fairly.
• Environment : The company is continuously expanding its plant-based menu options, and invests heavily in reforestation and regenerative agriculture.

Case Study #3: IKEA

IKEA is the largest furniture retailer in the world. That also means that it is the largest consumer of wood in the world. Fortunately, the company has initiated several programs to help reduce its impact on the environment.

• Turn Black Friday Green : Disposed furniture takes a huge toll on the environment by negatively impacting landfills. The company now works on finding ways to increase the durability of its products. In addition, this campaign promotes innovative ways that customers can repurpose their furniture instead of simply discarding it.
• Diversity and Inclusion Policy : The company has made a commitment to achieving a 50/50 gender split in top management by 2030. As of 2020, over 40% of top management positions were held by women.
• Supply Chain Compliance : Ensuring that employees throughout its supply chains are treated fairly is a fundamental component of IKEA’s CSR initiatives. The company regularly conducts audits and hires third-party organizations to ensure that all suppliers respect human rights.

Case Study #4: Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a massive company. Although mostly known for one beverage, the company actually has over 200 brands and sells nearly 2 billion servings a day. Being the largest seller of beverages also means having the largest impact on the environment.

The company has steadily been working towards several initiatives to alter its negative impact on the environment.

As a partner with Keep America Beautiful , Coca-Cola has donated over 1 million recycling bins across the U.S.  They have also contributed over $17 million in grants to environmental organizations such as the Closed Loop Fund to expand recycling efforts and support educational programs.

The company is also making headway in the area of water stewardship . That strategy is focused on creating sustainable water security by replenishing watersheds and supporting community programs that improve access to clean water. 

Case Study #5: Google  

It takes a lot of energy to operate Google’s data centers. Those centers consume a lot of electricity, which takes a tremendous toll on the environment. The company has committed to lessening its impact on the environment and also has several other CSR initiatives.

For example, Google has invested over $3.5 billion in renewable energy projects worldwide.This initiative has paid off. Google has been able to match its energy consumption with renewable energy purchases for several years in a row.

In fact, although Google’s computing needs grow every year, their energy consumption has remained flat. The company delivers seven times as much computing power with nearly the same amount of electricity .

Google is also doing its part in the area of food sustainability. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, 40% of food grown in the U.S. is uneaten. One reason has to do with what is affectionately referred to as “ugly produce”. 

Ugly produce has cosmetic flaws that supermarkets and restaurants refuse to buy. Even though the food is perfectly healthy and has no nutritional flaws, customers prefer to consume food that looks pretty.

However, “In 2015, Google cafés in the Bay Area saved 440,540 pounds of food from going to waste” ( Recipe for sustainability , 2016).

Related Concept: Altruism and Examples

The era of globalization has also brought the era of accountability. Corporations today now must demonstrate a meaningful commitment to social responsibility.

Fortunately, increasingly more corporations are realizing that protecting the environment is not just good for business, but actually results in tangible benefits for society.

CSR comes in many forms. For example, corporations try to use renewable energy, engage in significant recycling efforts, invest in ways to create sustainable manufacturing, and work to ensure that their supply chain partners are in compliance with fundamental human rights.

While it is true that individuals can make a difference, the incredible scale of today’s corporations means they can make an impact that is truly game-changing.

Banerjee, S. B. (2006). Corporate social responsibility: The good, the bad and the ugly. Critical Sociology, 34 , 51 – 79.

Carroll, A. B. (1999) Corporate social responsibility: Evolution of a definitional construct. Business & Society, 38 , 268-295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000765039903800303

Davis, K. (1960, Spring). Can business afford to ignore social responsibilities?  California Management Review , 2 , 70-76.

Dewey, J. (1899). The School and Society. The University of Chicago Press; Chicago Illinois. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/schoolsociety00dewerich/page/n7/mode/2up

Recipe for sustainability: Why Google cafes love ugly produce. (2016, December). Retrieved from https://sustainability.google/progress/projects/rews/

Masanet, E., Shehabi, A., Lei, N., Smith, S., & Koomey, J. (2020, February 28). Recalibrating Global Data Center Energy-Use Estimates. Science, 637(6481). Retrieved from https://www.gwern.net/docs/cs/hardware/2020-masanet.pdf

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Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Corporate Social Responsibility — Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate Social Responsibility (csr)

• Categories: Corporate Social Responsibility Structure

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Words: 535 |

Published: Sep 25, 2018

Words: 535 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, types of csr, importance of csr.

• Environment-Focused Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) This type of CSR focuses on reducing detrimental effects of the corporation’s operations on the environment. The corporation innovates in its manufacturing stage to reduce the production of environment harming by-products. It also promotes the use of non-renewable energy sources to prevent harm caused to the environment by burning of fossil fuels.
• Community-Based Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) The corporation joins hands with other organizations (usually Non-Profit ones) to ensure the welfare of a local community’s people. These organizations either fund or receive funding from corporations to perform tasks that can improve the living conditions of the community’s people.
• Human Resource (HR)-Based Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Corporations focus on the well-being of their own staff and improve their living conditions. The companies may extend compassionate leaves like paternity leaves so that the employee can look after his newborn. They can also provide medical insurance to their employees to take care of accidents caused due to occupational hazards.
• Charity Based Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) In a charity-based CSR, corporations donate to organizations or individuals (usually through a charity partner) to improve their financial condition and for their general upliftment. This is the most common form of a CSR activity. Most corporations provide direct financial support to organizations or individuals who require such assistance.
• Increased employee’s loyalty and retention.
• Gaining legitimacy and access to markets.
• Less litigation
• Increased quality of products and services.
• Bolstering public image and enhanced brand value.
• Less volatile stock market.
• Avoiding state regulations.
• Increased customer loyalty.
• Improved quality of life and changing habits.
• Capacity building creates wealth and employment.
• Balanced eco-system.
• Waste management.
• Clean and green environment

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Essays on Social Responsibility

The importance of sociological theories.

Social responsibility is a modern philosophy that states that all individuals and organizations are obligated to help the community at large. This is typically an active effort involving acting against a social issue or prevention of committing harmful acts to the environment. Many companies and individuals engage in social responsibility because of its benefits on their immediate community as well as their business and profitability. It is an ongoing topic in society with many questions available for discussion.

Argumentative Essay

Social responsibility is an ideal topic for debate; there have been mixed results for companies and individuals who have pursued social responsibility. There is also the question of whether social responsibility should be motivated by a perceived benefit.This type of essay is based on philosophical theories on the necessity of social responsibility backed up with facts about previous social responsibility efforts. For example, an essay could be about how giving support to disaster victims can significantly boost an entity's professional image.

Analytical Essay

Social responsibility is a broad field of study; there are numerous factors to analyze in determining which mix of factors will have the highest chance of a successful social responsibility effort. For example, an author can look into the different types of philanthropy that address a social injustice, including: giving monetary gifts, hosting social awareness events and starting a sub-organization which addresses the issue at hand. Each type of social effort may have varying levels of effectiveness depending on the people’s acceptance and the complexity of the issue itself.

There are an abundant number of social responsibility campaigns enacted by different companies and individuals. Authors choose a particular entity and write a case study about that entity’s social responsibility efforts. This includes researching the motivation behind the effort, analyzing the program execution and judging the overall social impact of the campaign. Moreover, the essay can also highlight how the social responsibility effort directly affected the entity itself. Some common methods include doing a profitability comparison before and after the social responsibility campaign and conducting a qualitative study of how the campaign improves the entity’s image and reputation.

Future Application

Social responsibility is a highly evolving topic. Given the reported indirect benefits of social responsibility, there is a growing argument of how it should become a new form of business. Based on the original philosophy of social responsibility, this type of essay discusses the outlook on the integration of social responsibility in the work force. Some topics include the feasibility of a pure social responsibility company, ways for a single company to efficiently help macro audiences such as third world countries, or the possibility of legally enforcing social responsibility efforts from all companies.

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• "Essays on Efficiency Measurement and Corporate Social Responsibility"; Constantin Belu; 2009
• "Professional Ethics and Social Responsibility"; Daniel E. Wueste; 1994
• "Corporate Social Responsibility"; Philip Kotler; 2005

Raleigh Kung has been a social-media specialist and copywriter since 2010. He has worked with various companies on their online marketing campaigns and keeps a blog about social-media platforms. Now, he mainly writes about online media and education for various websites. Kung holds a master's degree in management and entrepreneurship from the University of San Francisco.

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10 examples of corporate social responsibility done right

And how to build your own csr strategy.

A few years ago, my parents switched toilet paper brands. While this is surely fascinating information for you personally, it's relevant here because they switched to "Who Gives A Crap," a company that donates 50% of its profits to building toilets and improving sanitation in developing countries.

Developing a business model around corporate social responsibility is a great way to use our speck of time on earth to change the world for the better—while still making a profit. After exploring lots of brands that use this strategy well, I compiled some of my favorite corporate social responsibility examples. These businesses do good for others while still doing good for themselves.

Table of contents:

Types of CSR

Corporate social responsibility examples

Ben & Jerry's

Who Gives A Crap

Tom's of Maine

Rent the Runway

How to build a CSR business model

Frequently asked questions, what is corporate social responsibility (csr).

You don't have to be a non-profit to show that you care about the world outside your organization. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business model adopted by for-profit organizations that involves using company resources to benefit society while still pursuing corporate goals.

You've certainly heard of "the bottom line" in the corporate world—it's all about profit. CSR-oriented companies abide by a "triple bottom line" that encompasses two other "P" words: people , whether that be the company's employees or the population at large, and the planet . In other words, they're committed to incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their operations.

Many companies invested in CSR are Certified B Corporations, meaning they meet very high standards of positive social and environmental impact put forth by the non-profit network B Lab . But you can practice corporate social responsibility, certified or not. Here's what corporate social responsibility may look like in action:

Using sustainable manufacturing/production practices

Paying workers fair wages

Advocating for social justice policy reform

Innovating products to solve an environmental or social issue

Committing to reducing carbon footprint

Donating significant profits to a charitable cause

Types of corporate social responsibility

According to Harvard Business School , there are four broad categories of CSR on which businesses tend to focus:

Environmental: Businesses in this category focus on making a positive environmental impact. They adopt renewables, "cradle to grave" manufacturing principles, carbon offsets, and sustainable sourcing.

Philanthropic: Philanthropic businesses devote themselves to making a positive social impact. They often fund non-profits like universities, museums, arts programs, charities, and other cultural institutions. They might also provide grants and scholarships.

Ethical: Companies with strong ethical standards may go as far as codifying their ethics within their corporate structure to show their commitment to align with these values. For example, a company may establish in writing that it will never source materials from suppliers that mistreat their workers.

Economic: Companies committed to economic responsibility understand where their dollars are going and what impact they're having across the value chain. They believe it's important to pay their employees fair wages, and they exercise good stewardship with their profit.

10 corporate social responsibility examples

There are companies that throw half a percent of their earnings at a random charity, and then there are those that build their entire business model around societal advancement and really get their hands dirty. Here are 10 socially responsible companies that inspire with their CSR.

1. Ben & Jerry's

Ben & Jerry's commitment to social justice is just about as sweet as a pint of Half Baked®. As a B Corp, it's committed to using its ice cream to change the world for the better. For example, it invests heavily in building relationships with Black-owned and refugee-hiring suppliers.

But the brand didn't jump right into the deep end from its inception. From its humble beginnings in the late 1970s until today, the company has gradually advocated for more causes, now including voter rights, climate justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and many more—all while maintaining its brand presence.

Gradually take on new social initiatives rather than spreading your resources too thin all at once.

Develop an approachable personality for your brand through your tone and design.

2. Who Gives A Crap

After learning about the brand's mission , I certainly started giving a crap. Who Gives A Crap takes the shame out of (and adds some humor to) "going number two," humanizing itself as a brand.

But the brand name and tone aren't what makes it a socially responsible company. The founders are committed to building toilets and improving sanitation in developing countries to the point that they devote 50% of their profits to this mission, hence their status as a B Corp.

Like many other companies with great CSR, they also strive to be environmentally friendly, using plastic-free products and using sustainable materials like bamboo and recycled paper to manufacture toilet paper (among other paper products like tissues and paper towels).

CSR doesn't have to be serious stuff. Be authentic and honest with your brand's tone.

When expanding your brand's offerings, choose products that align with your other CSR objectives .

3. Tom's of Maine

If you've ever felt like there's no more room for innovation in your industry, think again. Tom's of Maine proved that a centuries-old industry (toothpaste) had more work to do by inventing the first recyclable toothpaste tube .

The company also exhibits transparency, providing detailed information about each of its ingredients so that consumers aren't left guessing what they're using to brush their teeth.

Tom's is also a great example of companies with high CSR standards banding together. The brand partners with TerraCycle, a recycling company, encouraging customers to recycle items that your average waste management company won't take, in order to redeem for charity donations. Since both companies emphasize sustainability and eco-friendliness, they go together like mint and toothpaste.

When thinking about innovation, consider CSR—how can you innovate in a way that's also socially responsible?

Partner with relevant, like-minded organizations that also practice CSR.

Most retailers produce clothing with a few narrowly-defined body types and presentations in mind. Most people don't fit those molds.

Queer-founded clothing brand TomboyX believes that everybody deserves to find a fit that makes them feel comfortable in their own skin. The company designs and manufactures clothing for all bodies and gender identities, keeping inclusivity at its core.

The company holds true to this value in its hiring practices as well, with 80% of its C-suite being women and 63% of managers identifying as LGBTQ+ and/or minority. The brand is also committed to sustainability, forming close relationships with its factories and striving to source organic and recyclable fabrics.

Having personal experience with a social issue makes it far easier to build your business around it. Focus on what matters to you personally.

Develop hiring practices that reflect your company's commitment to CSR.

5. Allbirds

According to Allbirds , shoes and sustainability make a great pair (pun intended). The brand is currently carbon-neutral and aims to have zero emissions by 2030 through tactics like regenerative agriculture and using renewable materials. Plus, Allbirds' shoes are durable and machine washable, making them easy to freshen up and use for many more months.

The brand emphasizes sustainability not only in its production, but also in the way it treats its workers. The brand has a strict code of conduct regarding the ethical treatment of employees and frequently visits and audits those factories to ensure their standards are being met.

Create both short- and long-term CSR goals.

Commit to your cause in a well-rounded way, not just focusing on one area of your business.

6. Rent the Runway

Thanks to Rent the Runway , you don't have to be a millionaire to wear designer clothes to your next bougie function. The company makes high-end apparel affordable and accessible by allowing customers to rent their clothes before choosing to either purchase them or send them back.

For those who regularly enjoy galas and nights out on the town, the brand offers a membership program that keeps its members equipped with a rotating selection of four outfits at a time.

Rent the Runway's mission is closely tied to sustainability. Too often, people purchase an outfit for a single event and then proceed to never wear that outfit again, resulting in textile waste. The company allows several people to enjoy an outfit for an evening out without making them pay top-dollar to purchase it. The brand now also offsets 100% of carbon emissions from shipments and aims to operate with net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

You can be socially responsible without shying away from profitable strategies like a membership-based business model.

Industries that produce a lot of waste offer the greatest opportunity for sustainability innovation.

Online grocery store Hive aims to make sustainable grocery shopping a breeze. The company does its due diligence to screen products and packaging for sustainability and ESG impact so that customers don't have to do the work themselves.

Hive notifies customers of their eco-friendly impact statistics after every purchase, providing them with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. And the dopamine rush doesn't end there—Hive ships its products in cute cardboard boxes filled with recyclable packaging materials that resemble honeycomb. I've ordered a few boxes myself, and I can honestly say that opening a Hive box takes me back to being a kid on Christmas morning.

Build CSR into each step of your customer journey .

Lift the curtain for your customers, so they can feel like they're a part of your mission.

8. BLK + GRN

BLK + GRN is a Black women-owned natural marketplace. The brand is committed to educating consumers on toxic ingredients that are often included in personal care products marketed to Black women and supporting sustainable products from Black artisans and health experts. 

The company even curated a list of widely tolerated toxic ingredients that will never show up in its products, coined its Toxic Twenty List . It serves as an informational resource for readers who want to learn more about ingredients they should avoid.

Develop your mission to solve a problem for a specific audience.

Educate others about your cause rather than just producing products that support it.

9. Patagonia

"Earth is now our only stakeholder." That was Patagonia's statement after its owner stepped down and handed the company over to a trust dedicated to addressing climate change. This means that any profits not reinvested in the business will be used to tackle the environmental crisis. And that's in addition to the 1% of sales Patagonia already donates to environmental efforts.

This unique restructuring ensures Patagonia employees are secure, the founding family can still make sure the company's values are followed, and the max amount of money goes toward a good cause. This is an approach no other company has taken before, making it an unprecedented step in corporate social responsibility.

Don't be afraid to do something unprecedented if it means making a bigger impact. 

Think long term to ensure your company's values won't change with new leadership. 

10. Cariuma

Much like Allbirds, Cariuma is a sustainable sneaker company that kicks fast fashion to the curb by sourcing materials responsibly and making quality products that will last. Its dedication to people and the planet go hand in hand with its "Get a Pair of Sneakers, Plant 2 Trees" initiative. 

Even if you just subscribe to its email newsletter, Cariuma will plant a tree in the Brazilian rainforest in your name. From ethical factories to carbon-neutral shipping, the company is a stellar example that you don't have to compromise on style or substance to be environmentally responsible.

Create tangible measures of impact, like planting trees for each purchase, to make your CSR efforts more transparent and engaging.

Innovate your products to be both sustainable and appealing, proving that eco-friendliness and style can coexist.

Don't just throw CSR against your business's wall and hope it sticks—it has to be implemented strategically.

Most importantly, ensure your approach aligns with your resources and brand image. For example, Who Gives A Crap chose a philanthropic goal relevant to its product offering. The brand name itself reflects both of these efforts and does so in a creative and witty way.

You should also be wary of half-baked initiatives and the temptation to cut corners. Many brands simply throw an eco-friendly label on their packaging (a strategy known as greenwashing), whereas Hive carefully inspects all of its products to make sure they're actually being kind to the earth and its people. 

Taking these steps will ultimately benefit you. If you execute CSR strategically, you can become a Certified B Corp, improving your business's reputation and attracting new customers.

Have a few more questions about corporate social responsibility? Here are some main takeaways.

What are examples of corporate social responsibility?

Patagonia handing the company over to a trust dedicated to addressing climate change; BLK + GRN educating consumers on the toxic ingredients often included in personal care products marketed to Black women; Allbirds working to be zero-emissions by 2030—examples of corporate social responsibility run the gamut.  CSR can be achieved through initiatives such as advocating for social causes, ethical production, and donating profits to environmental efforts, but it's not limited to any specific actions.

What are the four types of corporate social responsibility?

The four types of corporate social responsibility are environmental responsibility, philanthropic responsibility, ethical responsibility, and economic responsibility. Many companies use a mix of many (or even all) of these types of CSR, but it can be helpful to start by deciding which type fits your brand most closely. 

What is an example of a CSR statement?

An example of a CSR statement is Patagonia's mission statement: "We're in business to save our home planet." It explicitly articulates its purpose beyond profit, conveys a commitment to environmental preservation as a central driver of its business activities, and demonstrates a genuine dedication to addressing pressing societal challenges. Putting CSR at the forefront of your mission statement is a great way to show you mean (responsible) business.

What is the main purpose of corporate social responsibility?

The main purpose of corporate social responsibility is for companies to weave ethical, environmental, and social considerations into how they do business. The idea is to make a positive impact on society while growing sustainably and rocking the long game.

Related reading:

7 annual report design examples

.org vs. .com and other TLDs

A step-by-step guide to competitive market analysis

How to start an eCommerce business

This article was originally published in June 2021 by Jeremy Ducheney and has also had contributions from Cecilia Gillen. The most recent update was in September 2023.

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An Inspector Calls: A* / L9 Example Intro + Paragraph

Here are some samples of an essay on An Inspector Calls, on the theme of responsibility. I wrote these myself as a teacher to show students an example of the standard required to get a high level at GCSE. I’ve also broken down the structure below so you can see what to put into each paragraph and how to organise all of your ideas – this is the most important thing for getting a high level in an essay !

Thanks for reading! If you’re stuck on An Inspector Calls and need more help, you can access our full course .

How does Priestley explore the theme of responsibility in the play?  

EXAMPLE INTRO: 

Responsibility is a very important theme in An Inspector Calls, as the Inspector reveals one by one that all the Birling family are partly responsible for Eva’s death. Eva represents the lower classes, and Priestley uses the tragic ending of her character to spread his message about social responsibility, a message which is delivered by the Inspector himself, who acts as a mouthpiece for Priestley’s own views on socialism and equality. Overall, the audience realizes that their actions affect other people’s lives, so they are responsible for looking after and caring for everyone in society. 

An Inspector Calls: Character Revision

EXAMPLE MIDDLE PARAGRAPH: 

• Point (one sentence that answers part of the question, your idea)
• Evidence (quotes/references that prove your point) 
• The technique (language features/dramatic features/structure features)
• Explanation (analysis – how/why the evidence proves the point)
• Development (context/alternative interpretations)
• Link (linking back to the argument/thesis in the Intro)

Thanks for reading! If you’re stuck on An Inspector Calls and need more help, you can access our full course here .

Are you studying ‘An Inspector Calls’ at school or college? Don’t worry – we have a complete course that will help you get to grips with the text. It includes:

• 2 Hours of Video Lessons
• Extensive Support Material

JB Priestley embedded strong political messages in his play, and you need to understand those well to be able to write a high level essay or exam answer on the text. This course will enable you o revise the major characters and social messages in the play, and go deeper into the themes and context so you can get the most out of each essay

Click here to buy our complete guide to the text!

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“An Inspector Calls”: Theme of Social Responsibility Essay

Introduction.

“An inspector calls” is one of the plays produced immediately after the end of the Second World War in 1946. During this period, most scholars and human activists were majorly concerned with the welfare of the less privileged individuals within society (Priestly et al., 1992). The poor individuals in the United Kingdom did not have people who could fight and address their grievances, leading to most leaving a low-quality life. Priestly wanted to address the issue of classism and how poor individuals can be empowered to climb up the social ladder. He advocates for successful individuals to help poor individuals to live a quality life in the community (Priestly et al., 1992). Priestly also encourages that it is an individual’s responsibility to ensure that those close to them are safe and always available for each other when need be. This paper strives to highlight how Priestly has portrayed the theme of responsibility in different scenarios within the play.

Good neighborliness is when one cares about the well-being of those who are around them when things seem not to be okay on their side. One of the major points where Priestly portrays the theme of social responsibility is whereby Sheila feels a sense of duty when she realizes that she has a role to play in the death of Eva Smith. She tells Gerald to stop looking at her angrily since he also has once been involved in circumstances that are shameful (Priestly et al., 1992). Sheila finally admits and agrees to be held culpable for her actions and talks out the truth. However, Gerald is also blaming her for various faults while he has declined to take responsibility for his actions that also contributed to the demise of Eva Smith (Priestly et al., 1992) . The target audience can learn the importance of taking responsibility for various aspects and how their actions may impact the well-being of other individuals.

When one lives a responsible lifestyle, members of the community will not be worried much about them compared to those who are careless with their lives. Priestley also explores the theme of social duty when Mr. Birling fails to take responsibility for various actions that led to Eva Smith’s death. His sentiments suggest that everyone should be held responsible for their own life and well-being (Priestly et al., 1992). Individuals who take the responsibility of taking care of others mostly land into awkward situations in case an unlikely event with a devastating effect occurs to the individuals. Dr. Priestley strives to encourage the target audience to ensure utmost self-care and responsibility to maintain a good relationship with others within the community since there will be no unnecessary blames.

Putting one in an individual’s shoes is one of the major ways of understanding other people’s struggles. In the play, some of the characters also display social responsibility in some instances. For example, Erick feels socially responsible for some of his actions in the final parts of the play (Priestly et al., 1992). This indicates that Erick possesses some sense of social responsibility to ensure that other individuals within the society are always safe. Erick’s mother and Gerald have withdrawn from being involved in Eva Smith’s incident, but he still insists that something could have been done to salvage Eva Smith’s actions that cost her life (Priestly et al., 1992). He takes Eva Smith’s Matter very seriously and even urges her mother to be responsible for the unfortunate occurrence too. The reader can learn that nobody can understand other people’s struggles unless they go through the same experience.

Responding quickly to other individuals’ struggles is also a major aspect of ensuring effective social responsibility and good neighborliness. Mrs. Birling, who is a close individual to Eva Smith as well, also elaborates on the theme of social responsibility when she fails to take control over the events that contributed to the death of Eva Smith. Even after being questioned by the inspector and the inspector elaborating that she had a responsibility to undertake during the process, Sybil Birling still does not want to take the responsibility. This can be seen when he negatively remarks on Erick’s sentiments by saying that he is ashamed of him (Priestly et al., 1992). Telling Erick that she is ashamed of him indicates that she does not care about the inspector’s investigation and the impact the investigations have on other members close to Eva Smith (Priestly et al., 1992). This context enables the reader to stop being greedy and self-centered individuals and instead act responsibly when dealing with other individuals in the community.

In conclusion, responsibility is considered one of the most significant social characteristics since it enables individuals to care for other people. Human beings have universal rights, ensuring that no individual is subjected to circumstances against human rights. Priestly also highlights how individuals in higher positions and social class should effectively use their influence by positively impacting community members. One should always adhere to the principle of supreme morality when dealing with fellow human beings. The target audience can understand that social responsibility begins with good and productive neighborliness.

Priestly, J. B., John Braine Priestly, & Bezant, T. (1992). An inspector calls . Heinemann.

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IvyPanda. (2022, December 16). “An Inspector Calls”: Theme of Social Responsibility. https://ivypanda.com/essays/an-inspector-calls-theme-of-social-responsibility/

"“An Inspector Calls”: Theme of Social Responsibility." IvyPanda , 16 Dec. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/an-inspector-calls-theme-of-social-responsibility/.

IvyPanda . (2022) '“An Inspector Calls”: Theme of Social Responsibility'. 16 December.

IvyPanda . 2022. "“An Inspector Calls”: Theme of Social Responsibility." December 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/an-inspector-calls-theme-of-social-responsibility/.

1. IvyPanda . "“An Inspector Calls”: Theme of Social Responsibility." December 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/an-inspector-calls-theme-of-social-responsibility/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "“An Inspector Calls”: Theme of Social Responsibility." December 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/an-inspector-calls-theme-of-social-responsibility/.

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• 5 Steps to Getting Started with Llama 2
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• Meta and Microsoft Introduce the Next Generation of Llama
• Today, we’re introducing Meta Llama 3, the next generation of our state-of-the-art open source large language model.
• Llama 3 models will soon be available on AWS, Databricks, Google Cloud, Hugging Face, Kaggle, IBM WatsonX, Microsoft Azure, NVIDIA NIM, and Snowflake, and with support from hardware platforms offered by AMD, AWS, Dell, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm.
• We’re dedicated to developing Llama 3 in a responsible way, and we’re offering various resources to help others use it responsibly as well. This includes introducing new trust and safety tools with Llama Guard 2, Code Shield, and CyberSec Eval 2.
• In the coming months, we expect to introduce new capabilities, longer context windows, additional model sizes, and enhanced performance, and we’ll share the Llama 3 research paper.
• Meta AI, built with Llama 3 technology, is now one of the world’s leading AI assistants that can boost your intelligence and lighten your load—helping you learn, get things done, create content, and connect to make the most out of every moment. You can try Meta AI here .

Today, we’re excited to share the first two models of the next generation of Llama, Meta Llama 3, available for broad use. This release features pretrained and instruction-fine-tuned language models with 8B and 70B parameters that can support a broad range of use cases. This next generation of Llama demonstrates state-of-the-art performance on a wide range of industry benchmarks and offers new capabilities, including improved reasoning. We believe these are the best open source models of their class, period. In support of our longstanding open approach, we’re putting Llama 3 in the hands of the community. We want to kickstart the next wave of innovation in AI across the stack—from applications to developer tools to evals to inference optimizations and more. We can’t wait to see what you build and look forward to your feedback.

Our goals for Llama 3

With Llama 3, we set out to build the best open models that are on par with the best proprietary models available today. We wanted to address developer feedback to increase the overall helpfulness of Llama 3 and are doing so while continuing to play a leading role on responsible use and deployment of LLMs. We are embracing the open source ethos of releasing early and often to enable the community to get access to these models while they are still in development. The text-based models we are releasing today are the first in the Llama 3 collection of models. Our goal in the near future is to make Llama 3 multilingual and multimodal, have longer context, and continue to improve overall performance across core LLM capabilities such as reasoning and coding.

State-of-the-art performance

Our new 8B and 70B parameter Llama 3 models are a major leap over Llama 2 and establish a new state-of-the-art for LLM models at those scales. Thanks to improvements in pretraining and post-training, our pretrained and instruction-fine-tuned models are the best models existing today at the 8B and 70B parameter scale. Improvements in our post-training procedures substantially reduced false refusal rates, improved alignment, and increased diversity in model responses. We also saw greatly improved capabilities like reasoning, code generation, and instruction following making Llama 3 more steerable.

*Please see evaluation details for setting and parameters with which these evaluations are calculated.

In the development of Llama 3, we looked at model performance on standard benchmarks and also sought to optimize for performance for real-world scenarios. To this end, we developed a new high-quality human evaluation set. This evaluation set contains 1,800 prompts that cover 12 key use cases: asking for advice, brainstorming, classification, closed question answering, coding, creative writing, extraction, inhabiting a character/persona, open question answering, reasoning, rewriting, and summarization. To prevent accidental overfitting of our models on this evaluation set, even our own modeling teams do not have access to it. The chart below shows aggregated results of our human evaluations across of these categories and prompts against Claude Sonnet, Mistral Medium, and GPT-3.5.

Preference rankings by human annotators based on this evaluation set highlight the strong performance of our 70B instruction-following model compared to competing models of comparable size in real-world scenarios.

Our pretrained model also establishes a new state-of-the-art for LLM models at those scales.

To develop a great language model, we believe it’s important to innovate, scale, and optimize for simplicity. We adopted this design philosophy throughout the Llama 3 project with a focus on four key ingredients: the model architecture, the pretraining data, scaling up pretraining, and instruction fine-tuning.

Model architecture

In line with our design philosophy, we opted for a relatively standard decoder-only transformer architecture in Llama 3. Compared to Llama 2, we made several key improvements. Llama 3 uses a tokenizer with a vocabulary of 128K tokens that encodes language much more efficiently, which leads to substantially improved model performance. To improve the inference efficiency of Llama 3 models, we’ve adopted grouped query attention (GQA) across both the 8B and 70B sizes. We trained the models on sequences of 8,192 tokens, using a mask to ensure self-attention does not cross document boundaries.

Training data

To train the best language model, the curation of a large, high-quality training dataset is paramount. In line with our design principles, we invested heavily in pretraining data. Llama 3 is pretrained on over 15T tokens that were all collected from publicly available sources. Our training dataset is seven times larger than that used for Llama 2, and it includes four times more code. To prepare for upcoming multilingual use cases, over 5% of the Llama 3 pretraining dataset consists of high-quality non-English data that covers over 30 languages. However, we do not expect the same level of performance in these languages as in English.

To ensure Llama 3 is trained on data of the highest quality, we developed a series of data-filtering pipelines. These pipelines include using heuristic filters, NSFW filters, semantic deduplication approaches, and text classifiers to predict data quality. We found that previous generations of Llama are surprisingly good at identifying high-quality data, hence we used Llama 2 to generate the training data for the text-quality classifiers that are powering Llama 3.

We also performed extensive experiments to evaluate the best ways of mixing data from different sources in our final pretraining dataset. These experiments enabled us to select a data mix that ensures that Llama 3 performs well across use cases including trivia questions, STEM, coding, historical knowledge, etc.

Scaling up pretraining

To effectively leverage our pretraining data in Llama 3 models, we put substantial effort into scaling up pretraining. Specifically, we have developed a series of detailed scaling laws for downstream benchmark evaluations. These scaling laws enable us to select an optimal data mix and to make informed decisions on how to best use our training compute. Importantly, scaling laws allow us to predict the performance of our largest models on key tasks (for example, code generation as evaluated on the HumanEval benchmark—see above) before we actually train the models. This helps us ensure strong performance of our final models across a variety of use cases and capabilities.

We made several new observations on scaling behavior during the development of Llama 3. For example, while the Chinchilla-optimal amount of training compute for an 8B parameter model corresponds to ~200B tokens, we found that model performance continues to improve even after the model is trained on two orders of magnitude more data. Both our 8B and 70B parameter models continued to improve log-linearly after we trained them on up to 15T tokens. Larger models can match the performance of these smaller models with less training compute, but smaller models are generally preferred because they are much more efficient during inference.

To train our largest Llama 3 models, we combined three types of parallelization: data parallelization, model parallelization, and pipeline parallelization. Our most efficient implementation achieves a compute utilization of over 400 TFLOPS per GPU when trained on 16K GPUs simultaneously. We performed training runs on two custom-built 24K GPU clusters . To maximize GPU uptime, we developed an advanced new training stack that automates error detection, handling, and maintenance. We also greatly improved our hardware reliability and detection mechanisms for silent data corruption, and we developed new scalable storage systems that reduce overheads of checkpointing and rollback. Those improvements resulted in an overall effective training time of more than 95%. Combined, these improvements increased the efficiency of Llama 3 training by ~three times compared to Llama 2.

Instruction fine-tuning

To fully unlock the potential of our pretrained models in chat use cases, we innovated on our approach to instruction-tuning as well. Our approach to post-training is a combination of supervised fine-tuning (SFT), rejection sampling, proximal policy optimization (PPO), and direct preference optimization (DPO). The quality of the prompts that are used in SFT and the preference rankings that are used in PPO and DPO has an outsized influence on the performance of aligned models. Some of our biggest improvements in model quality came from carefully curating this data and performing multiple rounds of quality assurance on annotations provided by human annotators.

Learning from preference rankings via PPO and DPO also greatly improved the performance of Llama 3 on reasoning and coding tasks. We found that if you ask a model a reasoning question that it struggles to answer, the model will sometimes produce the right reasoning trace: The model knows how to produce the right answer, but it does not know how to select it. Training on preference rankings enables the model to learn how to select it.

Building with Llama 3

Our vision is to enable developers to customize Llama 3 to support relevant use cases and to make it easier to adopt best practices and improve the open ecosystem. With this release, we’re providing new trust and safety tools including updated components with both Llama Guard 2 and Cybersec Eval 2, and the introduction of Code Shield—an inference time guardrail for filtering insecure code produced by LLMs.

We’ve also co-developed Llama 3 with torchtune , the new PyTorch-native library for easily authoring, fine-tuning, and experimenting with LLMs. torchtune provides memory efficient and hackable training recipes written entirely in PyTorch. The library is integrated with popular platforms such as Hugging Face, Weights & Biases, and EleutherAI and even supports Executorch for enabling efficient inference to be run on a wide variety of mobile and edge devices. For everything from prompt engineering to using Llama 3 with LangChain we have a comprehensive getting started guide and takes you from downloading Llama 3 all the way to deployment at scale within your generative AI application.

A system-level approach to responsibility

We have designed Llama 3 models to be maximally helpful while ensuring an industry leading approach to responsibly deploying them. To achieve this, we have adopted a new, system-level approach to the responsible development and deployment of Llama. We envision Llama models as part of a broader system that puts the developer in the driver’s seat. Llama models will serve as a foundational piece of a system that developers design with their unique end goals in mind.

Instruction fine-tuning also plays a major role in ensuring the safety of our models. Our instruction-fine-tuned models have been red-teamed (tested) for safety through internal and external efforts. ​​Our red teaming approach leverages human experts and automation methods to generate adversarial prompts that try to elicit problematic responses. For instance, we apply comprehensive testing to assess risks of misuse related to Chemical, Biological, Cyber Security, and other risk areas. All of these efforts are iterative and used to inform safety fine-tuning of the models being released. You can read more about our efforts in the model card .

Llama Guard models are meant to be a foundation for prompt and response safety and can easily be fine-tuned to create a new taxonomy depending on application needs. As a starting point, the new Llama Guard 2 uses the recently announced MLCommons taxonomy, in an effort to support the emergence of industry standards in this important area. Additionally, CyberSecEval 2 expands on its predecessor by adding measures of an LLM’s propensity to allow for abuse of its code interpreter, offensive cybersecurity capabilities, and susceptibility to prompt injection attacks (learn more in our technical paper ). Finally, we’re introducing Code Shield which adds support for inference-time filtering of insecure code produced by LLMs. This offers mitigation of risks around insecure code suggestions, code interpreter abuse prevention, and secure command execution.

With the speed at which the generative AI space is moving, we believe an open approach is an important way to bring the ecosystem together and mitigate these potential harms. As part of that, we’re updating our Responsible Use Guide (RUG) that provides a comprehensive guide to responsible development with LLMs. As we outlined in the RUG, we recommend that all inputs and outputs be checked and filtered in accordance with content guidelines appropriate to the application. Additionally, many cloud service providers offer content moderation APIs and other tools for responsible deployment, and we encourage developers to also consider using these options.

Deploying Llama 3 at scale

Llama 3 will soon be available on all major platforms including cloud providers, model API providers, and much more. Llama 3 will be everywhere .

Our benchmarks show the tokenizer offers improved token efficiency, yielding up to 15% fewer tokens compared to Llama 2. Also, Group Query Attention (GQA) now has been added to Llama 3 8B as well. As a result, we observed that despite the model having 1B more parameters compared to Llama 2 7B, the improved tokenizer efficiency and GQA contribute to maintaining the inference efficiency on par with Llama 2 7B.

For examples of how to leverage all of these capabilities, check out Llama Recipes which contains all of our open source code that can be leveraged for everything from fine-tuning to deployment to model evaluation.

What’s next for Llama 3?

The Llama 3 8B and 70B models mark the beginning of what we plan to release for Llama 3. And there’s a lot more to come.

Our largest models are over 400B parameters and, while these models are still training, our team is excited about how they’re trending. Over the coming months, we’ll release multiple models with new capabilities including multimodality, the ability to converse in multiple languages, a much longer context window, and stronger overall capabilities. We will also publish a detailed research paper once we are done training Llama 3.

To give you a sneak preview for where these models are today as they continue training, we thought we could share some snapshots of how our largest LLM model is trending. Please note that this data is based on an early checkpoint of Llama 3 that is still training and these capabilities are not supported as part of the models released today.

We’re committed to the continued growth and development of an open AI ecosystem for releasing our models responsibly. We have long believed that openness leads to better, safer products, faster innovation, and a healthier overall market. This is good for Meta, and it is good for society. We’re taking a community-first approach with Llama 3, and starting today, these models are available on the leading cloud, hosting, and hardware platforms with many more to come.

Try Meta Llama 3 today

We’ve integrated our latest models into Meta AI, which we believe is the world’s leading AI assistant. It’s now built with Llama 3 technology and it’s available in more countries across our apps.

You can use Meta AI on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and the web to get things done, learn, create, and connect with the things that matter to you. You can read more about the Meta AI experience here .

Visit the Llama 3 website to download the models and reference the Getting Started Guide for the latest list of all available platforms.

You’ll also soon be able to test multimodal Meta AI on our Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

As always, we look forward to seeing all the amazing products and experiences you will build with Meta Llama 3.

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