Corporate social responsibility is commonly defined in the PR world as “doing well by doing good.” It is important for any corporation concerned about responding to social and environmental issues and helps to engage with a community to build a trusting reputation. Put more simply, CSR targets three key concepts — people, planet and profit.
It is ultimately up to the corporation how to go about CSR and what the company wants its mission to look like. Large corporations in the film industry reach large audiences, have big names attached to them, and earn lots of money. Knowing these things, I looked into the CSR plan of the widely-known, highly successful Paramount Pictures to see how they have chosen to do well by doing good.
The Paramount Initiatives
Paramount Pictures labels its CSR initiatives as: “giving back,” and says the focus is on four key initiatives. Those four are “education, environment, HIV/AIDS and volunteerism.”
For the People
One of Paramount’s more people-focused missions is supporting the fight against HIV/AIDS. As a Grand Sponsor of the LA AIDS Walk, Paramount has raised tens of thousands of dollars since the first walk in 1985. Outside of the AIDS Project Los Angeles, Paramount itself hosts events to “educate, increase awareness and foster compassion in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
For the education piece, Paramount has placed 100 employee mentors across schools in six neighborhoods in LA and the UK. The focus of these employees is to provide partners in reading and career exploration by, as they say, “sparking imagination, creativity and exploration through storytelling.”
For the Planet
Paramount built up a 22-member coalition known as the Green Team. The focus of the Green Team fosters their three-prong strategy:
- Educate employees to live the most sustainable lives possible
- Ensuring the lot operates in an environmentally sustainable way
- Ecologically responsible content and production
The Mission Targeting Multiple Initiatives
Paramount’s most general initiative is volunteerism. With no niche focus, Paramount gives its employees some creative leeway to pick where they want to give back with the Paramount Volunteer Crew. This crew, composed of over 500 employees, chooses various ways to give back to the community they live in. The planning of service projects happens monthly, and the range of work they do varies greatly — sometimes helping people, sometimes the planet, and in some cases both.
Paramount’s Execution
Paramount’s CSR plan is textbook-perfect. It targets good causes, gives employees various ways to get involved in giving back, and weaves in some key characteristics of the entertainment industry with its creativity. Not only did Paramount talk the talk, but they walked the walk.
In 2022, Paramount released its third annual environmental, social, and governance (ESG) Report. This report lays it all out for the public. It shows notable efforts to be a sustainable company and do good on a social level in the work environment, with the public and on-screen.
With multiple targeted efforts, Paramount provides its employees with ample ways to be part of the change. The amount of money Paramount brings in every year would make it easy to pick a cause to throw money at and call it CSR, but instead, Paramount has gone way above and beyond that. Paramount wants to see change and be a part of it. Support is about so much more than money, and it is clear Paramount understands this.
The next time you think about CSR, remember how Paramount holds itself and its employees accountable to social responsibility and figure out how you can best do well by doing good.