ORSE – Observatoire sur la Responsabilité Sociétale des Entreprises, which means Study Center for Corporate Social Responsibility, is a French network designed to study and promote socially responsible investment (SRI), corporate social responsibility as well as all the issues related to sustainable development. ORSE is a non-profit organisation that has been set up in June 2000.

ORSE gathers together 100 actors:

• Listed companies, including French major corporations such as Vivendi, Renault, LVMH, Total.
• Fund managers and their professional organisations such as the AFG.
• Banks and insurers for instance BNP-Paribas, Société Générale and Axa.
• Trade unions, such as CGT, CGT-FO, CFDT, CFE-CGC, and CFTC.
• Professional organizations such as the association of human resources directors (ANDCP).
• Non Governmental Organisations such as Amnesty International.

ORSE is the only French organisation bringing together so many diverse actors, all committed to SRI and corporate responsibility development. It constitutes a think-tank, bringing together actors involved in diverse fields, such as scientists, academics or experts.

Goals and missions

ORSE aims, first and foremost, at :

• Collecting, analysing and advertising information, documents and studies relevant to corporate social responsibility and to socially responsible investment in France and foreign countries.
• Diffusing information to its members by all the appropriate means.

More generally, the association will carry out every task related directly or indirectly to its mission, such as :

• Initiating and animating a network of actors involved in the field of corporate social responsibility.
• Proposing to its members instruments (information, identification of foreign networks) to help them in their reflection and actions.
• Foster the exchange of information between the members of the association about their experience.
• Identify the “best practices” that exist in the countries close to France.
• Bringing forward the reflection, particularly through working groups gathering corporate representatives, experts, academic members and trade unionists.
• Facilitating the establishment of partnerships between concerned actors and networks in France, Europe and further.

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Context

In France, the awareness regarding the benefits the company and all its stakeholders derive from corporate social responsibility has been growing up quickly in the recent years.
Furthermore, many ethical funds have recently been created. In addition, the total amount of socially responsible investment is close to one billion of euros by the end of 2001.

Given France's political climate, economic events (downsizing announcement, stock-options, etc.) frequently give rise to heated debates and controversies, particularly about corporate responsibility worldwide. As a result, a reflection about corporate governance, social and environmental reporting, social indicators as well as the consequences of good social corporate behaviour on performance has arisen on the agenda.

When compared to other European countries (Britain, Switzerland, Sweden) or to the United States, France seems behind on the subject. Nonetheless, certain leaders (unions, NGOs, company executives as well as political figures) have evidently given the idea some thought. Several laws and regulations have been voted in 2001. It is noteworthy to state three of them:

• 19th of February 2001: "Employee Saving Plan" law, which asks the fund managers to "disclose the extent to which social, environmental or ethical considerations are taken into account in the choice of investment".
• 15th of May 2001: "New Economic Regulations" law, which asks the listed companies to advertise detailed environmental and social information within their yearly report to shareholders.
• 17th of July 2001: Law project about the retirement reserve funds that requires the same obligations from the fund manager than the previous law, but regarding retirement fund.

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