The manual was based on a 2000 publication by the British organisation "Business in the Community", which gives the business sector recommendations on how to apply social responsibility programmes.
The Croatian edition was prepared by a coordinating group comprised of members of the business and academic community and nongovernmental organisations, who adapted the British original to the Croatian business practice and environment.
The manual covers seven chapters of socially responsible business -- mission and values, human potentials, the market, the environment, the social community, human rights, fundamental principles, and other key initiatives.
Each chapter, coming in a separate booklet, explains the importance of the area in business and the advantages of engaging companies in this area, and provides concrete advice on possible steps to take. It also provides instructions on how to gauge the effects of social responsibility programmes and how to report on them.
The UNPD permanent representative to Croatia, Yuri Afanasiev, said at the presentation that socially responsible behaviour gave companies an ethic component as well as added value which in the long run resulted in higher profits.
Afanasiev said socially responsible business represented a profitable long term investment, which was also confirmed by IBM Croatia managing director Ivan Vidakovic.
The essence of socially responsible behaviour is to apply towards the environment, employees and the social community standards which are above those stipulated by law.
In Great Britain, for example, more than 70 per cent of companies apply socially responsible business standards, while Dow Jones and FTSE have special indexes for socially responsible companies.