Corporate social responsibility - Mazars - Netherlands

Development and innovation lie at the core of everything Mazars does, from our services and working methods to the help we provide in tackling modern society’s problems. We encourage our staff to participate in social projects and organisations because taking responsibility for climate change and social issues is a source of pride for Mazars. The realisation that society will benefit from these efforts is what motivates us. At the same time, we are keenly aware that sustainable practices are the best policy for remaining successful in the long term.

The social role of Mazars

Balancing the many and varied expectations of stakeholders goes with the territory at organisations such as Mazars. For example, our employees expect openness and teamwork to play a central role in the company, while society expects us to be independent and behave with integrity – both in fact and appearance – and to avoid involvement with disreputable parties. For our clients, it goes without saying that we act and communicate in an expert, transparent and professional manner, while the neighbours expect us to refrain from causing any unnecessary nuisance. Last, but not least, social groups expect us to keep our ecological footprint to a minimum. We at Mazars are well aware of our role in society, and so helping to find solutions to social problems that affect human beings and the environment comes naturally to us.

Balance

After all, our mission to create added economic value must not be at odds with maintaining social justice and a good environment in which to live. Only companies that can reconcile economic, social and environmental considerations will remain successful in the long term. Therefore, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is also about an enlightened self interest: investing in this area also has value for the company. According to researchers as well, businesses that have operated sustainably are the ones that have achieved above-average results during the financial crisis.

We believe in a bottom-up approach to CSR: we give our employees the freedom to turn their ideas about social development into reality. Our role as an organisation is to promote and facilitate an active involvement in society on the part of our employees. We are convinced that this approach from the inside out is the best way to give sustainability a concrete form and to embed it in our day-to-day business, so that terms such as ‘sustainability’ and ‘CSR’ are not just meaningless buzzwords, but allude most of all to our decisiveness in this area. Sustainability must not be a mere façade. We ensure that the subject is treated in-depth by asking our people to take responsibility and actively encouraging them to become involved in social issues. That way, the subject increasingly takes on a life of its own, seemingly spontaneously. Our international organisation’s values lie at the core of these efforts – the same values that form the basis for our actions: integrity and independence, European culture, global ambition and continuity and loyalty.

Common interest

Mazars invests in corporate social responsibility because doing so serves a common interest. At the end of the day, everyone benefits from our contribution – not just the civil-society organisations. Experience has taught us that participating in social projects helps to broaden the horizons of our employees, increase the cohesiveness and effectiveness of teams and facilitate our staff’s personal growth and development.

The active contribution we make to the society around us is focused particularly on participation in social projects to help groups that can use an extra boost. Often, our employees can help to see a project through to success by sharing their knowledge and experience. In other cases, we just lend a 'helping hand' or provide a little extra support in the form of a financial donation. In addition, countless Mazars employees serve on the board or in other positions at civil-society organisations. Over the last few years, this policy has been extremely effective and the enthusiasm at our organisation is constantly increasing. Our participation in the Nationale Collectebusactie (‘national collection box campaign’) and the finance committee of FSC as well as sponsorship of United World Colleges and Fonds Gehandicaptensport (‘sport fund for the disabled') are just a few examples of our contributions.

When it comes to our impact on the environment, in other words, our footprint, we consider compliance with national and international legislation and regulations an absolute minimum. On many issues, we then take things several steps further to minimise the environmental impact of our activities through the use of modern technology and by making conscious environmental choices in terms of suppliers and resources.

CSR policy is always a work in progress. There are always new developments – technological and otherwise – to consider, as well as changing external circumstances and the emergence of new social issues. We want to be pioneers in this area, so we continue to raise the bar just a little bit higher. However, that is a time-consuming endeavour and it sometimes means we have to make difficult choices in order to strike the right balance. That, too, is development.