Verified Document

Tim Horton's Sustainability Report, The Major Strengths Essay

Tim Horton's Sustainability Report, the major strengths are that it defines the company's internal structure for implementing CSR, and that it is highly detailed. The first component is important, because it puts the CSR initiatives in the context of the company's overall strategy. The report outlines the management structure of the company and the oversight structure as well. The report discusses the company's history and mission. It is important that CSR initiatives be evaluated in the context of these factors. Corporate social responsibility initiatives are more likely to be implemented effectively if they are aligned with the company's general mission and strategy. A good example of this would be Wal-Mart, which is already focused on efficiency as a cost-saving measure, making it easy to focus on reduced waste as an environmental initiative. Tim Horton's being a low cost provider, faces a similar issue. The company's mission in this case is only somewhat aligned with the environmental aspects of the business -- fast food inherently generates a lot of waste and the company has only begun recently to examine ways of dealing with that. Another strength of the Tim Horton's CSR report is that is a highly detailed. These types of reports are only as useful as the information they contain, and in this case the information is quite detailed. Tim Horton's understands that CSR is about meeting the needs of a wide range of stakeholders, and explains its understanding of the stakeholder environment in which it operates. It then outlines its performance on several initiatives, from nutrition to waste to employee benefits. The information provided is rich and well-structured. For each major category the company outlines the stakeholders, the objectives and how it intends to meet these objectives.

One weakness of the report is that it is focused largely on what Tim Horton's does well....

The company dedicates multiple pages to long-standing initiatives like its summer camps for children and some of its coffee sourcing successes, but there is less information on areas where perhaps the company is weak. The report comes off as glowing, which is a somewhat distorted picture of Tim Horton's actual performance according to some (admittedly unreliable) blog posts (No author, 2010).
Another weakness, less in the report but in the objectives themselves, is that many are short-term. The report for 2010 seemed mostly focused on initiatives that range on or two years. There is not as much information as would be appropriate regarding long-term initiatives or long-term strategy. A good CSR strategy is going to be much like any other good business strategy, and focused on both short- and long-term tactics. The company should have a vision of its responsible self that goes out for the long run, so that management has guiding principles to which it can adhere.

Lastly, there is little in the report to explain the controls that the company has in place. As an example, the company has a plan to reduce water waste but it does not say how this will be enforced at the individual store level. If the company is relying on voluntary buy-in from individual managers, it should say that. If the company has incentives to induce changes in the tactics, it should say that. Ideally, the company would explain how it intends to achieve its objectives, and what costs there are, if any, for non-compliance among its managerial team.

The report does a good job of outlining the different stakeholders and many initiatives are related directly to these stakeholders (employees, coffee suppliers, environment). From an organization perspective this makes for easy analysis. It is clear from the report that the company has only recently undertaken many initiatives, and as…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited:

No author. (2010). Tim Hortons brewing more than just coffee with CSR initiatives. Miratel Solutions/The Ecolectual. Retrieved November 30, 2011 from http://www.miratelinc.com/blog/tim-hortons-brewing-more-than-just-coffee-with-corporate-social-responsibility-initiatives/

Tim Horton's Sustainability Report. Retrieved November 30, 2011 from http://sustainabilityreport.timhortons.com/pdf/full%20report.pdf
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Summer Camps and Programs in the Development
Words: 3360 Length: 12 Document Type: Term Paper

Summer Camps and Programs in the Development of Children The purpose of this paper is to represent to the reader the importance of organized summer camps and programs in youth development. A special emphasis throughout the paper is placed on the influence of recreation on child development and personal growth. By defining the effect of the summer camp experience and presenting relevant statistics from reputable opinion leaders, this paper will reveal

Summer Camp and Children
Words: 478 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Social Services and Government Intervention The social program that targets children from low income families of interest in this context is the weekend summer camp. This is a program within the township that I hail from. The weekend summer camp is a two day summer program that brings together children from destitute families to be able to be engaged in the summer activities and fun that other children often engage in.

STEAM Summer Camp Projects
Words: 1756 Length: 6 Document Type: Grant Writing

STEAM Summer CampProposed Project SummaryThe 2023 STEAM summer camp will be a great opportunity for students to explore the arts and sciences through fun and engaging activities. The camp will provide a supportive and nurturing environment for students to develop their creativity and critical thinking skills. In addition, the camp will give students the opportunity to meet other like-minded individuals and make new friends. The camp will be held from

Camp Hope From Home Family
Words: 1131 Length: 4 Document Type: Thesis

Children then meet with their devotional groups to discuss how to apply the lesson to their own lives. While the camp is the main focus of the institution, an extension program for older children of deployed soldiers or those who have died as a result of their deployment is another important feature. This feature presents one-on-one counseling opportunities. The young adults have the opportunity to sit down with Biblical counselors

Artek Pioneer Camp the Pioneer
Words: 2098 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

But as for the modern version of ARTEK, the writer claims "...the camp has little in common with the ideology that reigned at ARTEK in Soviet times... [and] is similar to boy and girl scout camps in the West." Indeed, Bransten writes that during the 80th anniversary of ARTEK (August 18, 2005), show business stars like soccer player Andrei Shevchenko and pop music star Ruslana along with movie star (of

Nazi Concentration and Death Camps
Words: 8103 Length: 25 Document Type: Research Proposal

The German suffering after the first world war and the humiliation of Germany with other nations gave the Nazis the opportunity to feed hatred of the Jews and at the same time promise that if the People gave in to the Nazi ideology, they would be in the land that would hold them a superior way of life. That the followers of Hitler followed the Ideals as true and that

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now