Dear Shuvro Sen,

At the moment I am studying the relationship between CSR and SD by looking at:

- Replacing PPP, People Planet Profit, which presents an impossible balance, by the ‘Dimensions of Sustainable Development’, first thinking and acting by considering the eco-system/Earth, then Wellbeing and only after those two Welfare. From there I try to see and understand which products/services can be asked for and thus produced from a pure sustainability perspective.

- Regarding present-day production I consider if value-chains are calculated at a true cost price, deriving from there how (un)just consumption-prices are driving consumers to unsustainable choices

- The third aspect regards the development of learning within the companies/industry in order to create a management and workforce capable of running a sustainable business. This learning I connect with school-based learning (from primary to higher education) by terms of life long learning of new/young people entering the industry-system.

- Then I also take a critical look at present day CSR, the work of Foundations, Green Washing, etc. in order to make more clear the above approaches/questions are more relevant to address, therewith re-arranging the meaning and cause of CSR.

Hope this helps, very best greetings,

Jos

Dear Shuvro Sen,

Maybe you can get inspired by Social Life Cycle Assessment. It is an assessment that evaluates social impacts in the entire supply chain of product under sustainability framework. The tergets of stakeholders considered in the assessment is not only workers, but also local community, society, value chain actors and consumers. It is quite comprehensive and is developed by UNEP-SETAC. You can check the methodological sheets here to get more inspiration on types of questions to link between CSR and sustainable development:

https://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/S-LCA_methodological_sheets_11.11.13.pdf

and

http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/dtix1164xpa-guidelines_slca.pdf

I hope this helps.

Warmest regards

Dear Shuvro Sen,

I researched this question some years ago.

Loew T., Ankele K., Braun S., Clausen J. (2004)

Significance of the CSR Debate for Sustainability and the Requirements for Companies

German Federal Ministry for the Environment (Ed.) (2006)

Corporate Social Responsibility: An Introduction from the Environmental Perspective

Download via:

http://www.4sustainability.de/en/corporateresponsibility/publications.html

also see: http://www.4sustainability.de/corporateresponsibility/definitionen/csr.html

you can translate it with:

https://www.deepl.com/translator

I'm going to give your my understanding. 

Sustainable Development = an increase in quality of life within a community between two points in time, using the skills of the population and the ecological services from the landmass it manages in a manner that can be maintained in perpetuity.

Sustainable Economic Development = an increase in the quality of life between two points in time by increasing specialization and productivity of the population, while reducing the internal barriers to trade of critical resources and the external barriers to co-management of critical resources, and retaining a sufficient financial reserve to address economic disruptions.

Sustainable Social Development = would be an increase in the quality of life of a community between two points in time, by encouraging the unique customs, arts, and social institutions of that community that provides the residents with a sense of identity and belonging while ensuring that no subset of the community receives a greater burden than benefit from any development initiative.

Sustainable Ecological Development = an increase in the quality of life of a community between two points of time by restoring or enhancing the ecosystem services that provide resources and absorb waste from the biomes being managed, while ensuring that a non-declining portion of each biome is maintained as a ‘wilderness’ that is neither a sink for wastes nor a source for resources.

CSR activities can not be considered 'sustainable' in and of themselves - business is too ephemeral.  However, they can support a community in their efforts.

The process would be:

i) Answer the unanswered questions. Use community data. If there is community data that is unavailable, then the CSR activities must help the community collect this data, so that it can be used by all businesses seeking CSR.

ii) Know what you’re doing. Determine the business use of critical resources and natural services. Calculate the ecological footprint of the products and services being sold by the company. Compare this to the ecological footprint and biocapacity of the community. Show that the non-renewable critical resources being extracted from the landmass managed by the community is being done in a manner that considers the declining reserve of the resources and the expected end of production. Show that critical resources being consumed by the business or are being exported are surplus to the community’s needs. Determine the life-cycle time used to create products and services. Determine the reduction in time used within the community served because of the products and services being sold, including all of the end-of-life costs. This is the direct time benefit. Calculate the Net Time Benefit of the goods and services by subtracting the sum of the life cycle used to create the products and services and the ecological footprint of the goods and services multiplied by the slope of the community Resource/Time curve.

iii) Know your impact. Calculate the change in how effectively people meet their needs because of the goods and services provided. Determine the Actualized Quality of Life of the community with the planned business activities, and without them, for the current business planning cycle. Calculate the change in how effectively people meet their needs after the non-renewable resources become exhausted. Determine the Actualized Quality of life of the community post-cessation of business activities.

iv) Serve your customer well. Show the AQoL of the community with the planned business activities is higher than the AQoL of the community without them. If it does not, then the CSR activities must find a way of improving the AQoL of the community presently. Identify which unmet needs in the community can be addressed better by improvements to your goods and services.

v) Leave a good legacy. Show that the future Community does not have a lower AQoL than the present condition without the goods and services provided. If it does, then the CSR activities must find a way of improving the future Community AQoL, in addition to all other activities.

vi) Build resilient communities. CSR activities can increase community resilience specifically. This can be done by ensuring:

(1) a non-declining portion of the biomes that the community manages is retained as ‘wilderness’ that is neither a source for resources nor a sink for wastes;

(2) a financial reserve in the individuals, families, business, and government to be able to address financial shocks. Restocking the reserve must be quick, but not to create a hardship;

(3) that all of the people can meet all of their needs in something less than 24 hours per day per capita. Not all of the people must have all their needs met all the time, only that it must not be impossible for them to meet them all.

Ultimately iv) and v) are the most critical.