Everything you need to know about Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR)

Digital waste, increase of connected objects, mass harvesting of personal data, illectronism; the digital world has many aspects and challenges whose risks are still too little known to companies. 

Digital Corporate Responsibility, also known as RNE, is therefore a major tool to be taken in hand to understand these issues of today and tomorrow. 

RNE is still little known in France, but it was inspired by the Anglo-Saxon concept of Corporate Digital Responsibility. It seeks to reconcile two rather different worlds: digital and corporate social responsibility (CSR). 

But what exactly is Corporate Digital Responsibility? How do you implement it in your company? How does it relate to CSR? We give you some ideas to become aware of the impacts of digital technology.

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What is Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR)? 

Digital technology is evolving at a rapid pace. This brings many advantages but also dangers and unforeseen consequences. 

What ethics should be adopted when dealing with personal data? What is the long-term impact of your product ? Is there a digital divide in your company? 

These are questions that ENR will be able to answer.

Corporate Digital Responsibility is defined as the consideration of the impacts of digital usage on : 

• The workers
• The business model
• The environment

According to the CSR Platform, which filed its 1st opinion on the issue on July 6, 2020, ESR is "a new and unavoidable deployment of CSR that is based on the same principles ofaccountability, ethics and exchanges with stakeholders."

The objective of the Digital Corporate Responsibility is therefore to guide companies in the respect of 4 fundamental procedures on the digital plan, namely: 

• The creation of new technologies and data collection
• Decision-making processes
• Impact analysis
• Technological improvements

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The 3 pillars of ENR 

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Data management 

We do not necessarily realize it, but there are risks and stakes more or less important when we hold private data as a company. In addition to losing the trust of its customers if their data were to be disclosed unintentionally, a non-compliant use of the RGPD can involve heavy sanctions.

This information is necessary to get to know your customers better. But you must be careful to respect the privacy of each individual. 

The League of Human Rights (LDH) emphasizes that digital advances have many advantages such as access to information but they can also become "tools of surveillance and oppression". 

The ENR raises several questions about the data collected:

• What data is managed, produced and valued? 
• What is your legal context regarding the use of this data?  

It is important to ask yourself these questions in order to be transparent and trustworthy, both with your employees and your customers. 

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Issues related to environmental impacts 

Digital technology, even if it seems immaterial, has very real environmental impacts. The carbon footprint of digital technology is not negligible, between the resources needed to manufacture it and its use, which emits greenhouse gases.

According to ADEME, the GHGs emitted by the digital sector represent between 2% and 4% of all global GHGs . And this figure is constantly increasing.

ENR encourages quantifying its digital impacts by analyzing 4 indicators: 

• GHG emissions
• Water consumption
• Energy consumption
• Abiotic resources

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The company has an environmental responsibility at each stage of the value chain, whether it be the design, use or end of life of the product. This analysis allows to see the points to be changed, to resort to eco-design and to be part of a continuous improvement process. 

The digital impact is measured on the products but also according to : 

• Suppliers 
• Subcontractors
• The use made by the final customer; the latter must be informed of the environmental impact generated

ESN not only raises awareness of the digital footprint, but also challenges the technological uses within the company. 

How is your company approaching the digital transition and the resulting impacts? This kind of question shows the interest of mixing CSR and ENR, both from a strategic point of view and for its brand image.

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Issues related to social impacts

The last pillar of the ESR is the social impact of digital. Does it create fractures within your company due to exclusion or illiteracy? Public services are a good example of this non-inclusiveness since some people have difficulty accessing them. 

According to the Mission Société Numérique, 13 million French people were digitally excluded in 2017.

And as we have seen during the various confinements, digital technology has radically changed our relationship to work and services. 

Several issues are related to this digital transition such as: 

• The uberization of certain professions
• The status of platform workers and their precariousness
• Respect for the life of each individual and the "right to disconnect
• Cybersecurity

Similarly, many remarks about the racism of algorithms or Artificial Intelligences (AI) have surfaced in recent years. 

The responsibility of one's company does not only extend to data processing or its carbon impact. It is also important to pay attention to the inclusion of everyone. 

Digital Corporate Responsibility poses several questions that can guide you: 

• What is the impact of the digital transition in the internal life of your company? 
• What does digital technology change in the employee-company relationship? 
• How do you respond to the digital divide? 

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The social pillar of the digital world is probably the most complicated to grasp, as theobjective of being inclusive must be kept in mind. For this, it is possible to do training within the company, for example. 

Digital Responsibility and Corporate Social Responsibility 

Digital technology has environmental and social impacts, and it goes without saying that we want to reconcile CSR and NER, since the two complement and reinforce each other. 

The common issues of CSR and ESR are: 

• ethics 
• temporal
• democratic

The idea of both approaches is to be responsible, both on the environmental and social side. Whether it is the CSR or the RNE, we find the same principles of transparency, ethics and exchanges.

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What does it mean to be digitally responsible?

After analyzing the 3 pillars of ESR, what are we doing to be digitally responsible?

The challenge is to meet objectives in favor of sustainability. Being digitally responsible therefore means having a responsibility: 

• Regulatory , which is related to the protection of private data, the RGPD and sectoral regulations
• Ethics related to AI software
• Societal based on data management, data sharing and inclusiveness
• Environmental in relation to the use of data and the consideration of environmental impacts resulting from the company's activities

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Being digitally responsible means first and foremost being aware of one's digital impacts, the ethics of data and doing everything possible to ensure the inclusiveness of all.

The 3 pillars of the RNE are thus declined under 3 axes: 

• Respect for the privacy of employees and the company's commitments
• Deploying AI and automation, while keeping people at the heart of the business
• Digitalization for the well-being and inclusion of employees. 

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6 recommendations from the CSR Platform to be digitally responsible

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Sobriety 

Sobriety is the most effective strategy for reducing your digital waste and carbon footprint. 

For this, nothing could be simpler: 

• Focus on eco-design
• Pay attention to the lifespan of your products
• Choose a reconditioned IT fleet for your company
• Analyze and quantify your impacts to see where you need to change

Thanks to sobriety, technology is at the service of the ecological transition. 

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Governance 

ESN promotes transparency, so it is important to implement it. To build engaged governance: 

• Include indicators to assess your CSR in your non-financial performance statements 
• Integrate digital technology into social dialogue
• Include good practices in the use of digital technology in charters

These actions help create a conscious, ethical and responsible digital governance.

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The information 

In order for ENR to be as effective as possible, it is essential to deploy it widely through training and information. Whether within the company, in VSEs or SMEs, training must be provided on the potential impacts of digital technology on private law, the environment and social issues.

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Inclusion 

To make digital truly inclusive in your business: 

• Develop a digital equity by taking into account the remarks and advice of your employees
• Conduct short training sessions to teach them how to use certain tools
• Encourage voluntary data sharing.

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New forms of work

The current digitalization is setting up new forms of work, it is important to remain open to it while understanding the problems related to the emergence of these new modes of operation. 

Awareness is needed in relation to : 

• New managerial relationships
• New jobs and their sometimes precarious status  
• Working conditions related to the digital professions, from near and far.

As we can see, with the growth of digital technology, it is becoming essential to manage its impacts, whether they are environmental or social. Digital Corporate Responsibility is therefore part of this desire to control digital technology, a double-edged tool. 

Rzilient, your iT partner, accompanies you towards a responsible digital life, a real CSR issue, by proposing reconditioned iT equipment. We meet your digital needs while putting forward the values of collective interest, respect of human rights

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