Should CSR be the new PR?

Campbell Soup Company is known as a leader in CSR.  The company has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North American and World Indexes, and one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere in 2010.  It is included in Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens List.

Campbell’s 2011 CSR Report states that attention to its role in society and sustainable agriculture is part of its 140 year history.  The report goes on to say that Campbell’s considers CSR and sustainability as approaches to the conduct of business that:

• build employee engagement;
• create positive social impacts;
• enable operational efficiency, reduce costs;
• foster innovation; and
• strengthen relationships for business advantage in the long term.

This view of CSR strikes me as a value-added approach to PR and what the PR function should, these days, strive to contribute to an organization.  The recently updated definition of PR by PRSA -- a strategic communications process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics -- sounds a little weak or out of touch by comparison.   

Pushing the boundaries of accountability, transparency and engagement is one way PR pros can help their organizations. That's a start.  Applying skills of employee engagement, stakeholder relations, issues management, external monitoring in a context of CSR leadership is a growth opportunity for the PR profession to provide relevancy, superior value and competitive advantage to the organization.