Setting the trend

Since joining the World Trade Organization, the number of sustainability reports issued by Chinese companies has risen from just one in 2001 to 898 in 2011, according to the China WTO Tribune.

In 2009, China was top with environmental certifications, with more than 55,300 Chinese companies registering for the ISO 4100, an accepted global standard for environmental management. The number of newly certified companies in China was higher than the rest of the top 10 countries combined.

"Reporting is the glue that holds everything together," says Sean Gilbert, director of climate change and sustainability for KPMG Advisory (China).

"Standards are very good at helping people to avoid problems, talking about what not to do. They're not nearly good at the creative side of the question, what could you do? Or should you do?"

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Gilbert says China is still not at the stage of fully understanding what exactly CSR is, with some Chinese companies not even realizing environmental issues fall under the remit of social responsibility, but has made rapid advances.

As China looks to the future of CSR, the focus will be more on making quality, sustainable products rather than on corporations interacting with the community, he says.

"People have moved away from community investment, philanthropy and volunteering as being the focus. They're much more focused on how a company operates, what it makes, how it makes it, where it makes it and how it distributes it," Gilbert says.

"This is really just starting in this part of the world."

toddbalazovic@chinadaily.com.cn

Visitors read a company's social responsibility poster at a CSR Asia Summit held in Beijing recently. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily 10/12/2012 page1)