Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as the active and voluntary contribution to social, economic and environmental improvement by companies, generally with the aim of improving their competitive and value situation and their added value.
Corporate social responsibility goes beyond compliance with laws and regulations, assuming their respect and strict compliance. In this sense, labor legislation and regulations related to the environment are the starting point for environmental responsibility. Compliance with these basic regulations does not correspond to Social Responsibility, but to the obligations that any company must comply simply by carrying out its activity. It would be difficult to understand for a company to claim CSR activities if it has not complied or does not comply with the reference legislation for its activity.
This concept of administration and management encompasses a set of business management practices, strategies and systems that seek a new balance between the economic, social and environmental dimensions. The history of CSR dates back to the 19th century in the framework of Cooperativism and Associationism that sought to reconcile business effectiveness with the social principles of democracy, self-help, support for the community and distributive justice.
The company's social responsibility (CSR) aims to seek excellence within the company, paying particular attention to people and their working conditions, as well as the quality of their production processes.
For the International Labor Organization (ILO), the social responsibility of the company is the set of actions that companies take into consideration so that their activities have positive repercussions on society and that affirm the principles and values by which they are governed, both in their own internal methods and processes as in their relationship with other actors. CSR is essentially understood by a voluntary initiative.
Some authors point out the origin of the movement for Corporate Social Responsibility in the 1930s and others in the 1970s, but the truth is that since the 1990s this concept has been gaining strength and constantly evolving, after the advent of globalization, the acceleration of economic activity, ecological awareness and the development of new technologies.
There are certain international organizations that are in charge of delimiting as far as possible the theoretical concept of CSR, whose guidelines serve as guidance for business organizations that decide to go down this path. Among the most prominent we cite the following:
- United Nations Global Compact Global Reporting Initiative.
The Social Responsibility of the State
We have to go back to the origins of the term social responsibility, which as a strategic management tool has always been one of the obligations of States. We understand by State the sovereign political and social organization that enjoys administrative and regulatory power over a geographical territory or country, by the will of its inhabitants.
Thus, the State must assume responsibility for the economic, social and environmental administration of a territory or a country. However, social responsibility (as much as environmental responsibility) has suffered from the permanent political omission of many governments.
This situation has led to the appearance in various countries, both in Europe and the United States, of a discourse focused on the responsibility that companies have, beyond their economic results, and the effects of their actions in the environment in which they operate. The various social, environmental and economic pressures have made business organizations feel more and more obliged to act according to socially responsible criteria, thus offering answers that satisfy their interlocutors or interest groups.
Sustainable development
It is not until the second 1982 Earth Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, that it is delegated to the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development known as the Brundtland Commission, led by Norwegian policy Gro Harlem Brundtland, where it a Through its socio-economic report prepared for the UN in 1987, the term “Sustainable Development” is used for the first time.
Sustainable Development is defined as one that satisfies the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations, the objective of sustainable development is to define viable projects and reconcile the economic, social and environmental aspects of human activities, which must be understood by people, companies and especially the State, which assumes the role of disseminating the consensus:
Sustainable development
Economic:
Understood as "classic" financial functioning, but also as the ability to contribute to economic development in the field of business creation at all levels;
Social:
Understood as the social consequences of the company's activity at all levels: workers (working conditions, salary level, etc.), suppliers, customers, local communities and society in general, basic human needs;
Environmental:
Understood as the compatibility between the social activity of the company and the preservation of biodiversity and ecosystems. It includes an analysis of the impacts of the social development of companies and their products in terms of flows, consumption of difficult or slowly renewable resources, as well as in terms of waste generation and emissions.
Since the coining of the term sustainable or sustainable development, thanks to the UN's worldwide intervention, much progress has been made in the commitment of States to social responsibility.
Sustainable development / Social responsibility
At the United Nations Millennium Summit held in September 2000, the Millennium Declaration was promulgated, approved by 189 countries and signed by 147 heads of state and government. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight ambitious goals to be achieved by 2015, consist of 8 Goals and 21 quantifiable goals that are monitored by 60 indicators:
Millennium Development Goals
