The term Corporate Social Responsibility is less often used today but can be used by some companies instead of ESG, social sustainability or the ‘triple bottom line’.

Social considerations in sustainability include ethics / anti-corruption systems, human rights and health, equity and labour rights, and corporate governance which ideally should be integrated into sustainability action.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is how the corporate sector often frames social sustainability issues. Responsible or ethical investment can also form part of CSR pracice in the business context.

Another term being used to describe this field is CSV – the creation of shared value. CSV recognises that corporate profit is nolonger considered sufficient to create real community economic value. To find out more about CSV, check out this 16 minute interview with Michael Porter of Harvard Business School and uploaded in 2011 by the Harvard Business Review.

Why is social sustainability relevant?

This film provides some insight into answering this question. It is drawn from a conference of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development entitled, “Green Economy and Sustainable Development: Bringing back the Social Dimension” (2011):

Handy links:

• the ISO 26000 Corporate Social Responsibilty standard:
• the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
• the United Nations Global Compact (Australia)
• Triple Bottom Line reporting
• Accounting for Sustainability – set up by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2004