Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a process through which companies, in addition to their economic functions, take responsibility on environment and social concerns, making themselves accountable and engaging in a dialogue with all those involved in their activities. CSR should focus on the three main dimensions of value creation: Profit, People and Planet. Companies should engage - individually or in groups- in a constructive dialogue with stakeholders to identify the social and environmental impacts of their actions.

BSC publishes Guide on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which can be purchased from BSC office or bookstores of Yerevan.

About Guide.
The Guide has been developed for Aremenian Companies and has involved important, useful and necessary information such as:
1. CSR concept definition and sectors of application; 2. Important role of CSR in operational and strategic levels; 3. Main steps of CSR Policy and Strategy Development for Armenian SMEs; 4. the best examples of successful experiences on CSR in Armenian, as well as of foreign (including Russia) companies.

Over four years BSC in collaboration with its international and local partners has been addressing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in terms of CSR concept introduction to the Armenian society and private sector, Supply Chain and Value Chain Development in agricultural sector, as well as CSR strategy development for the sectors involved and CSR promotional campaign. CSR principles were introduced in three sub-sectors: honey, dairy and tomato. BSC has published a Brochure on CSR projects in Armenia.
Since 2006 BSC is a member of UN Global Compact Armenia Network.

As an active participant in the Global Compact Armenian Network, BSC has developed Communication of Progress (COP) as a communication means to stakeholders on the progress the company has made in implementing the ten principles of the Global Compact in its business activities. To share it with the company's stakeholders, BSC has published COP (pdf, 89kb, engl.) in its website and the UN Global Compact website.

The figure below shows evolution of the activities implemented in the scope of CSR projects performed by BSC during the period of 2004-2008:

Among the key results achieved during last years are:
• Consensus achieved within the Value Chain players in the three sub-sectors on mutual resopnsibilities,
• Cost calculation methodology was developed for each of the selected products (honey, dairy and tomato),
• Several trainings and public seminars were held for the project participants and the public,
• Accurate price range based on calculated costs was defined in the contracts between VC actors,
• Fair contracts were introduced and respected in the selected supply chains,
• Disputes were solved in harmony or through external arbitration,
• Quality standards for the selected products were introduced,
• Farmers and processors committed themselves to achieving the set quality standards,
• New market opportunities were identified,
• Strategy papers for the selected agricultural sub sectors were developed
• Willingness of the stakeholders to collaborate in this field in the future was achieved.

• CSR strategy development • Development of quality criteria for production and service • Supply chain strengthening

• CSR concepts • Principles of supply chain development • Definition of production quality criteria • Legal and economic implications of CSR principles

• Identification and analysis of CSR application level • Research on supply chains

• Evaluation of effectiveness of CSR strategy • Evaluation of efficiency of supply chain • Evaluation of CSR application impact