True and false: Social responsibility does not escape from the effects of fashion. It nevertheless finds increasingly more consistency under the pressure of pension funds, capital managers, the local bodies, public authorities, NGOs, and international institutions. 

It is the object of multi-disciplinary academic research, and is claimed by companies conscious of the need for social responsibility and the risks that may be incurred by ignoring the need for social responsibility. The plurality and representative majority of players who carry the responsibility with their contradictions of interest guarantee the vitality and durability of the concept.

False: Social responsibility presupposes the recognition and independent affirmation of the stakeholders of the company, particularly, the trade unions, to which the latter is led to take account.   

In this the social responsibility is far from the paternalism, the authors of which defined the social interests to be satisfied and had no account to render to anyone but themselves.

False: Even if the notion of sustainable development was initiated at the Rio Conference in 1992, on environmental problems, sustainable development has been enriched by the taking into account of Human Rights, ethics in business, and social and societal problems.

Notions which cannot be disassociated from any concrete contribution to sustainable development and the legitimate interests of future generations.  

False: While the first and most tangible commitments in favour of objectives of social responsibility actually appeared in the industrialized and democratic countries, they have been made the fact of interactions between the actors of civil society (trade unions, NGOs, investment funds) companies and public authorities.   

These interactions continue to be exerted on all points of the globe where the multinational corporations carry on their activities, constituting a factor of transformation of their behaviour. 

False: social responsibility, as soon as it is defined by the multinational corporations in conformity with the standards of universal application announced by international institutions (UN, ILO, OECD), is a factor of progressive reduction, on a worldwide scale, of the competitive variables linked to the social conditions of production.

Moreover, it is in the interest of companies from the developing countries and their governments to enforce and demand respect for social, environmental, and governmental standards adopted by the United Nations.     

It is a necessary condition for entering the game of the internationalisation of trade.

False: The SMEs with the greatest concern for their long-term survival also care for their reputations, clients and salaried employees. The failure to make social commitments is not a durable competitive advantage.   

The specification and calls for tenders of some SMEs or territorial bodies mention criteria of social responsibility to be respected by their suppliers or sub-contractors.  

False: The transparency of methodology implemented for our social responsibility audits is a strong commitment of the Vigeo Group.

We have chosen to make our methodology fully accessible, convinced that only our organisational resources, our R & D capacity, our internal training and our accumulated experience which are able to affirm and protect our intellectual property.