A party in the heart of Atlanta honoring Martin Luther King’s Nobel Peace Prize paved the pathway for a multi-billion dollar company, Coca Cola, to display its values on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Angry white elites decided that because of their racist disagreement for King winning the award, they would cohesively not attend. Coca Cola, upon hearing the racist invite-decline from the white Georgian elites, stated that “it’s embarrassing for Coca-Cola to be located in a city that refuses to honor its Nobel Prize winner” (Tribute to MLK).

The statement caught the attention of not only the party invitees, but also the entire nation. Coca Cola then declared that they “are an international business, The Coca-Cola Company does not need Atlanta”. Coca Cola expanded on their stance by announcing that “You all need to decide whether Atlanta needs the Coca-Cola Company'” (Tribute to MLK). Holding up CSR values impacted the African Americans who were striving for the freedom that they deserved. This story inspires and challenges communities today locally, nationally, and internationally to define not only how they must incorporate CSR, but why - to break the walls between where a company stands and where it wants to grow. Coca Cola became applauded by not only the people that shared the same values as them, but also the people who admired their obstinate and unwavering position for the equal rights of all people. The communities benefited. The brand benefited. Passionate belief in the importance of CSR lays the exponential opportunities of each companies ability for growth and impact.

Passion without purpose is like a campfire - static and comfortable. Passion with purpose is like a wildfire- influence unboundedly burning down racial conflicting walls between communities. The widely growing importance of CSR in Grand Rapids(GR) stems from its past positive impact with GR consumers and GR environments. Companies, like Steelcase, who hold CSR at the highest level of honor, devolve influence through sustainable development, environmental protection programs, and the social well-being of citizens. Synthesizing findings from The Harvard Business School’s research, it is found that the purpose of Corporate Social Responsibility is to align a company’s social and environmental activities with its business purpose and values (Harvard).

Steelcase has a committed their support to education in their community which is impacted by their CSR values. Steelcase sponsors the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology: a place where students with creative ability put into action their ideas through design thinking. The teens at WMCAT addressed the issue of “how might we empower our peers to be more sustainable?” while they attended “video conference sessions at Steelcase facilities in each country”(Steelcase). The students, supported and inspired by Steelcase, focused on “century skills like collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and digital literacy” (Steelcase) - these same students are the ones who will be entering into the workforce soon. Through WMCAT’s empowering programs in career training and the arts, children and students of minority race and poor decent are given the life changing gift of opportunity: once again Steelcase’s passion for its community's future is embodied. The people benefitted. The brand benefitted.

Steelcase has a commitment to economic development in their community that is impacted by their CSR values. Steelcase is a global partner with Habitat For Humanity (HFH) offering relief funds to various Habitat locations globally, and through this nonprofit they “strengthen families and neighborhoods” through building houses and affordable home ownership”. To Steelcase, supporting economic development in Grand Rapids means that they actually show up for the HFH events! Just recently, Steelcase showed up to the HFH “Brush With Kindness” program where Steelcase volunteers worked on “exterior painting, landscaping and [repairing] projects on nine homes”(Mlive). Steelcase’s CSR also contributes to the community directly through the people without the need of a nonprofit. The company’s own workers recorded a lofty 46,000 hours of volunteer work worldwide!

In addition to Steelcase’s environmental contributions to economic development in communities, Steelcase designs products, applications, and services aimed at “delivering value and unlocking human promise” (Steelcase). Emmy-winning journalist, reports Betsy Hernandez, a Steelcase worker, referring to herself as “the trash lady at Steelcase” who takes “decreasing waste seriously and drives environmental initiatives big and small”(Steelcase). Steelcase snapshotted their impressive CSR achievements of 2016: reduced VOS emissions by 75%, water use by 9% and water output by 44% (Steelcase).

Steelcase is expanding their CSR impact on communities through a global initiative. Steelcase created an effective and organized method called The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Index that is a “sustainability reporting framework that allows companies the opportunity

to self-report on a variety of material subject areas”(Steelcase). GRI Index provides “increased transparency and accountability when it comes to economic, environmental, social and governance information” (Steelcase). Although Steelcase’s honor system of transparency is regularly upheld, there is no need to hide the fact they they donated $150K to Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts in 2017. There’s no doubt that an individual company, like Steelcase, is strong within itself when it does not need to think twice before donating thousands of dollars to a national issue. In addition to their national contribution to Hurricane Harvey’s starving and homeless people, Steelcase excitedly announced that “as a company we’re honored to provide monetary and furniture donations to the communities that help Steelcase grow and innovate” (Steelcase). Steelcase ultimately wants to “bring lasting value to [their] customers, employees, shareholders, partners, communities and the environment” (Steelcase).

Steelcase has a commitment to encourage diversity in their community that is impacted by their CSR values. Steelcase built an institute for healing racism in Grand Rapids. This is a part of their purpose to “support diversity in the workplace”(Steelcase). Beginning in 1999 Steelcase has sponsored a “10-week program for coalition” that “explores the history of racism in America and methods of healing racism wounds”. They also has started a Summit On Racism that is “an annual workshop focused on brainstorming ways to end racism” (Steelcase). Understanding “why” grows the “how” a company fixes an issue. This institute “draws people from all areas of Michigan”. Inspiration of change inspires more inspiration. Steelcase treats their summit for change like its a race. At the end of the race is equality, and although this race is a twenty-six mile marathon, Steelcases enthusiasm, endurance, and drive for change keeps them focused at each mile of the race.

Who would a top CSR company want to hire? An applicant who expresses their love for changing the world with no real life experiences or examples of incorporating their “biggest dream” into their past, or the applicant who has experience in creating effective change? Experience is the key. When Steelcase considers who it wants to hire, it thinks about the products it is known for creating and the “products” that the applicant has created. To Steelcase it makes sense to have employees that align with their CSR values, and determine that alignment through evidence. Steelcase’s workplace recruitment and retention of workers works is strong because of their corporate values. Steelcases worker retention rates are high because they respect all people. This correlates with the fact that Steelcase is proud to have the “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality” after achieving a perfect score in the 2017 Corporate Equality Index, a benchmarking tool on policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees” (Steelcase).

CSR impacts the workers in Steelcase as the they work to design products for sustainability. They believe that “providing the best solutions for [their] customers” begins by ensuring they have the best solutions for their environment. That’s why “every step of the way – through design, manufacturing, delivery and product lifecycle” – they consider the impact of their work on people and on the environment and uncover opportunities to make things better (Steelcase). The Environment benefits. The brand benefits.

When people turn to Steelcase, they turn to them for more than just furniture. People within Grand Rapids and beyond continuously seek Steelcase as the best place to work and the best place to purchase furniture because Steelcase creates spaces and products that support social well-being. Every year, not only does Steelcase provide companies with thousands of useful products, but also it provides them with ways to dispose of their old furniture - furniture most likely not from Steelcase. Steelcase applauded its success to its ability break down the walls between them and the community - after all, CSR truly is the statistical way of measuring exactly how much a company cares about the world supporting it.

Greatness is determined by the actions that an individual or company takes. Steelcase is one of the world's “most admired companies” because when it thinks about how it can benefit, it thinks about how its community and workers benefit. Steelcase creates experiences through its CSR for world leading organizations across the globe (Steelcase). Real relationships within the community take time: is it is painting, it is speaking, it is learning, it is unlocking human potential. Steelcase’s global industry leading revenue is at 3.0 billion as of 2017. How do we know that this company will continue to grow? The company will grow because their sustainable and meaningful CSR values lay the groundwork for exponential opportunity growth. The community benefits. The company benefits.