A company may embrace the concept of CR, but executing CR to good effect is an entirely different matter. Operating along CR principles may require retooling business models, supply chains, and in all probability an organisation’s mission and strategy. All such CR-inspired changes need to be executed with precision so that, in due course, they provide tangible returns to the enterprise. And as important, these changes must also be well documented and competently reported in order to build public confidence in a company’s good intentions.

PwC is uniquely positioned to assist organisations in these sorts of efforts. Our Assurance, Advisory and Tax professionals regularly help companies around the world address the strategic, compliance, operational, reputational, financial and reporting implications of CR. Just as importantly, we work with governments, clients and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to extend both the theoretical and practical aspects of CR.

For example, during FY 2011, PwC’s UK and German firms worked with the sport lifestyle company PUMA to develop the world’s first environmental profit and loss account (E P&L). The account’s framework places a value on the natural resources PUMA uses; and quantifies the environmental impacts caused by greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption along PUMA’s supply chain. These costs now serve as a metric for the company in efforts to mitigate its environmental footprint.

As PUMA’s CEO, Jochen Zeitz, explains: “I believe that the current business model that originated in the industrial revolution must evolve into a business paradigm that works with nature and not against it. As businesses, we must account for the cost to nature of doing our business and with this E P&L we have taken the first step towards assessing a realistic economic value of PUMA’s impact on the environment. Because we can only manage what we measure.” PwC UK partner Alan McGill adds: “This initiative gives PUMA a unique and challenging insight into its supply chain. Fundamentally, the E P&L analysis is about risk management for both the environment and the business – because you can’t separate the two.”

During the past year, we also played a key role in a groundbreaking study sponsored by the United Nations that was aimed at calculating the economic value of the world’s ecosystems. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study examines how biological diversity benefits the global economy and argues that companies around the world need to integrate the economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services into their decision-making. In the study, PwC found that risks related to declining biodiversity and loss of ecosystem services are impacting businesses in all sectors. According to Malcolm Preston, Global Sustainability Leader at PwC: “These risks include reduced productivity, scarcity or increased cost of resources, disruption of operations, reputation and financing risks, litigation and changing consumer and purchaser requirements.”

Environmental protection is clearly fundamental to the CR equation and the TEEB research helps businesses, NGOs and national governments to embed consideration of the value of natural resources into their decision-making to support the preservation of natural capital. Work on environmental protection issues recently took an international team of PwC professionals to Borneo, an island in the South China Sea with large tropical rainforests inhabited by rare and endangered species. In the centre of the island lies the so-called ‘Heart of Borneo’ – a 22 million hectare region consisting of pristine and highly biodiverse tropical forests.

The three Bornean Governments of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei have committed to conserving the island’s natural resources and biodiversity, while simultaneously promoting green growth – identifying and valuing natural capital in order to transform economic activity so that growth today can be sustained in future for the benefit of society. To accomplish these twin goals PwC was asked by WWF, the world’s leading conservation organisation, to apply the TEEB research and a business perspective in an assessment of the green growth potential for the Heart of Borneo. Our work produced recommendations for a transition to green economic growth and stressed the need to better engage businesses and local communities.

CR is an approach to business that aims to build customer and employee engagement, improve environmental performance, create positive social impacts, enable operational efficiency, reduce costs and foster innovation. But sometimes, CR is about putting a company’s expertise to work to help rebuild shattered lives.

The magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 killed more than 300,000 people, injured an equivalent number, and left one million people homeless. As donations from around the world poured into Haiti, PwC’s US firm immediately pledged to contribute its specialised business skills to help manage the massive relief and recovery effort. Throughout FY 2011, a dedicated team from the US firm worked with international donors and multinational institutions to establish the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), comprising members of the international community and local Haitian officials. The IHRC’s purpose is to direct and coordinate over US$5 billion of international aid with a focus on monitoring so that resources are applied as effectively as possible and in a transparent and accountable way.

After providing pro-bono services for more than a year, PwC US was re-engaged by IHRC to establish and manage the commission’s Performance and Anti-corruption Office (PAO). As a first step, the PwC team carried out extensive research to compile a first-of-its-kind report to the IHRC’s board that outlined the purpose, status and financial circumstances of every redevelopment project underway in Haiti.

PwC US has successfully assisted the IHRC in fulfilling one of its essential and long-standing goals: to provide its board and stakeholders – most importantly, the Haitian people – with objective and independent reporting and oversight of its portfolio of projects. This unique opportunity to create transparency across the international donor community, to the benefit of a country facing major and unprecedented challenges, also provided a great development opportunity for PwC’s people to use their core skills in a different and challenging environment.

At PwC, the emphasis on building relationships runs through all our external and internal activities – including our CR efforts.

One example of this is PwC’s involvement with the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In the desert nation of Chad, the UNHCR and PwC have jointly built seven new primary schools and improved 25 others – bringing hope to over 16,000 refugee children displaced by fighting in Darfur. PwC established an exceptionally close and effective relationship with the UNHCR – one which the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees regards as a model for all its private sector partnerships.

PwC professionals have applied skills in business and project management to create an approach that the UNHCR is adopting for other camps in Chad. This approach is viewed as best practice for many other similar projects around the world. It covers key policies, standards and actions such as establishing a database of teacher skills and student abilities; monitoring school attendance; implementing quality training workshops for teachers; improving school facilities and services; organising activities and vocational and skills training for young people finishing primary school; and seeking active community involvement. The UNHCR’s ambition to mainstream this project in all refugee camps is reflected in its revised education strategy for Chad.

The impact of the project has been dramatic. Access to education, school retention rates and the quality of teaching and learning have all improved and there are now more choices for youth after primary school. For example, the proportion of students and teachers attending school has more than doubled from 27% in 2010 to 67% in 2011. Girls now make up a much larger proportion of total students at 49%. Better infrastructure and additional classrooms have resulted in class sizes reducing from 80 to 50, improving the quality of learning and teacher-student interaction. And teachers and school managers are better equipped to do their job, with 365 teachers and 165 directors undergoing training in 2010.

António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, says: “The ‘Educating the Children of Darfur’ project is tangible proof of the good that can be achieved through public and private sector partnership, even in the most remote and difficult of locations. The project is only one component of the partnership between UNHCR and PwC. The success of our partnership over the last three years has re-set the bar for our relationship with the private sector.”