Corporate social responsibility, the key to social well-being?

The development of a multifaceted and multidimensional risk (geopolitical, technological, health, environmental, social, etc.) questions our collective capacity to cope with shocks and to invent solutions to allow “living together”, on a local scale as well as overall. The health crisis - with economic, social and societal implications - that we face shows clearly that each of us is concerned and our responsibility engaged, individually and collectively, as it is true that "We are collectively responsible for what happens to us and , above all, of what will happen to future generations ”).

The social utility of companies

The subprime crisis, the drama of the Rana Plaza, the environmental challenges have involved, for the past fifteen years, a renewal of the reflection on the responsibility that companies must assume towards the society and the territory in which they are established. The need for them to integrate the consequences of their decisions on the well-being of their stakeholders and to be part of a long-term approach is now widely accepted. Ford already said it in 1920: "The company must make a profit, otherwise it will die. But if we try to run a business solely on profit, then it will also die because it will no longer have any reason to be. "

The statement in 1987 in the Brundtland report "Our common future" of the importance of working for economic development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own" declination by companies of the main axes of sustainable development according to the triptych economy - environment - social dimension. This social responsibility (CSR) approach stems from the coexistence of market failures (externalities, imperfect competition, information asymmetry, etc.) and factors limiting the scope of public intervention (information problems, pressures exerted by groups of interest, territorial limits, management of global commons ...).

By integrating environmental (greenhouse gas and waste, water and energy consumption, biodiversity), social (human resource management) and societal (respect for human rights, elimination of work) considerations children), governance (prevention of corruption and anti-competitive practices, commercial relations, product safety, etc.), CSR must allow, beyond private gain, extra-financial benefits.

https://theconversation.com/la-responsabilite-sociale-des-entreprises-cle-du-bien-etre-social-137418