Companies that are regarded as socially responsible are more likely to gain respectability and increase their business with governments that are accountable to their citizens (Humphreys, 2000). These companies are also more efficient when recruiting as their reputation gives them access to the brightest and best in the labour market. From a business perspective the effectiveness of CSR programs is difficult to evaluate because its success “is measured in terms of what doesn’t happen rather than what does; the absence of local tensions, of time spent in dispute or litigation, and of not having to absorb the costs of regulatory impositions which were unplanned and unbudgeted” (Humphreys, 2000). However, if CSR’s purpose is to avoid “unexpected” social conflicts, it is not possible to calculate the specific costs that these conflicts would have created in a given mining project.
CSR from the community’s perspective: A mechanism to compensate for costs associated with mining While mining companies may regard CSR as good for business, from the communities’ perspective CSR is a mechanism of compensation for the social and environmental costs associated with mining. These community costs often relate to environmental impacts, higher food and housing costs, and the social impacts from an influx of immigrants (pressure on health and public services, prostitution, gambling, and alcohol consumption) (World Bank and IFC, 2002).
Spring 2012
Canadian student review
57