Social and environmental sustainability: key concepts and questions

Social/Environmental Sustainability

Determining the limits of companies' corporate social responsibility is not easy. Businesses which treat corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability like any other corporate goal are on the right track. Having made that decision implies that companies should have specific targets to meet, just as they do for sales or production or other business functions. Once companies have met certain targets in both environmental and societal responsibility, then they have fulfilled their obligation to society.

So the real question is not whether all companies should do CSR. Instead the question to be debated is how to create specific CSR programs as part of their business strategy to become more competitive. The new focus in CSR is relating it to profitability (Cavett-Goodwin, 2007).

A good example of being responsible up to a point is shown by the experience of Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical company which manufactures Tamiflu. After trying unsuccessfully to get governments interested in preparing for flu epidemics, Roche took it upon themselves to manufacture and stockpile flu vaccine at their own expense. They also donated 2 million doses to be stockpiled in certain regions. Once Roche had accomplished all that, the international community and governments should expect to pay Roche a fair price for flu vaccine going forward (Goldsmith, 2009).

Nestle provides another good example of how companies can handle CSR. To reflect the fact that CSR is part of their normal international business environment, Nestle does not even refer to it as CSR, instead they use the term "shared value." They view business development that simultaneously meets the needs of shareholders and society as creating shared value. Nestle concentrates on three priority areas for creation of shared values: water, rural development and nutrition (Bulcke, 2009).

Student Number 2

Everyone wants to see companies be good citizens, but what exactly does that mean? Businesses are in business to make money. That should be their main focus. They should create jobs, pay their taxes, and obey the laws. All of these things make companies good citizens.

A lot of what people want businesses to do should be done by charities and private citizens. This is not to say that companies should not be involved in philanthropy, because they should, only that there are limits. Peter Drucker, renowned management consultant, argues that demands for CSR in response to social problems should be resisted when this would affect the performance capability of the business (Smith, 2010) .

Companies should be doing some of the activities that are considered as being socially responsible just because it is the correct way to do business, for example, McDonalds providing nutrition information for their customers. People who don't want to eat a lot of fat, salt and sugar should be able to find out what is in their meals. Then it is their choice and it is up to them whether to eat at McDonalds or not. As for conserving water and power, those are steps that businesses should take because it saves them money, and they can pass those savings on to customers.

Student Number 3

It is very important that companies take responsibility for the health of the planet as well as our fellow human beings just as the videos discussed. Individuals and charities and even governments can only do so much, and businesses have to do the rest. Many companies acknowledge that they owe something to society in order to make the world a better place. However, not everyone agrees on specifically what companies should do and how much should be expected of them. Without some common understanding about their responsibilities, it may be up to the government to set common standards for all companies.

Initially CSR was a voluntary concept, but it looks more and more like regulation may be the only way of insuring that all companies meet their obligations to society. The Human Rights Act of 1998, passed by the Parliament of the UK, could be considered a good first step in this direction. This Act sets forth fundamental rights and freedoms that all individuals in the UK have access to and that all public bodies have to comply with. However, there is a drawback to making CSR mandatory for all companies. Some companies' ability to compete effectively could be affected if all companies are required to adopt CSR policies (BlurtIt, n.d.).

Student Number 4

It would be nice if more companies did what McDonalds and other companies featured in the videos are doing. Companies should at least consider ways to make their businesses more sustainable. After all, if they succeed in poisoning the planet or using up all its resources, they still have to live here too.