Have you ever heard of CSR?
Do you know what CSR is?
CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate Social Responsibility, basically, means to be a good citizen of society. And we, as consumers of certain brands, should be helping corporations be more socially responsible. According to the Harvard Business school, “Seventy percent of Americans believe it’s either ‘somewhat’ or ‘very important for companies to make the world a better place.”
Let’s take a look at Tripadvisor’s CSR.
First off, you can barely find anything about their social responsibility on their main website without a little digging. I ended up finding their “Green Leaders,” page which shows good practices. Tripadvisor’s GreenLeaders Program, “showcases a variety of eco-friendly hotels and B&Bs, from budget to luxury – and they’re all committed to green practices like recycling, local and organic food, and electric car charging stations.” This is a good example of good corporate social responsibility, however, the link to this page was in tiny print and found all the way at the bottom of their homepage.
To find more stuff about their social impact, I had to look that up. This link that I found brought me to their Tripadvisor Foundation page. This was not on their main website, and if it were, I could not find it. However, their foundation page contains all things good for the people and the Earth. “Our focus is on harnessing connection and information to inspire civic engagement and support resiliency in areas affected by disasters and displacement. Since 2010, the Tripadvisor Foundation has invested more than $40 million in communities around the world.” The Tripadvisor Foundation aims to give, serve, and learn. The foundation matches employees’ personal donations eligible to nonprofit organizations around the world. Employees at Tripadvisor are encouraged to volunteer in their local communities. For every hour they volunteer, the employee earns $15m and donates the money to the organization of their choice. Tripadvisor educates its employees on how to be civically engaged on social issues and actions they can take.
Tripadvisor is an example of good and bad corporate social responsibility. Their practices and actions to help areas affected by disasters, donating to nonprofits, and educating their employees are something every business should do. However, Tripadvisor can do a better job of spreading its commitment to social impact on its main website. Again, from the Harvard Business School, they said, “Nearly 90 percent of executives believe a strong sense of collective purpose within their organization drives employee satisfaction.” After doing some research it seems overall, that Tripadvisor’s employees are generally happy with their work.
Tripadvisor is a company that I will support because of its good practices in CSR. Go see what you can find when looking for your favorite company’s CSR.
