CSR is centered on the ethical practices and benefits of an organization to society in the present as well as the future. As one example, philanthropy is a central theme for CSR while preservation of natural resources is central to sustainability. Nevertheless, the two concepts are fairly closely aligned since each considers the impact of the business on society and the environment as well as both also requiring equable economic progress. It should also be noted here that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is also used to describe the same concept as CSR. In our analysis, we will focus on sustainability while recognizing the close relationship to CSR or ESG.
This chapter starts with a historical review of the adoption of sustainability as standard business practice by most major corporations and in many other sectors such as the financial sector, medical care, and hospitals, the military, cities, and states as well as most agencies in the federal government. The next section describes current trends affecting the practice of safety and health within the sustainability realm. The last section summarizes the role of the safety and health professional in sustainability.
2 THE EVOLUTION OF SUSTAINABILITY
The best way to examine what is now a very broad range of concepts and actors in sustainability is to quickly review the evolution of sustainability as a business practice. There were at least four principles but separate historical tracks influencing the development of sustainability as a business practice. The first track was the recognition of the “problem” and the promotion of solutions by governments, regulatory agencies, and various organizations including the United Nations. The second track was the push for open self‐reporting on actions and measures in sustainability by the public, private interest groups, and financial analysts (and later governing bodies). The third track was the influence of various rating agencies that would publically rate and disclose the sustainability performance of public and private companies. The last track was the development of regulatory requirements mandating the reporting of either CSR or sustainability elements to the public or to those with a financial interest in the organization.
2.1 Recognition of the Problem
The rapid growth of the industrial economies throughout much of the developed world led to significant environmental problems and degradation which became widely recognized in the late 1950s in the United States and in other countries. This included air pollution, solid and hazardous waste issues, and water pollution of various forms. Injuries and illnesses were also increasing being recognized as a societal problem as industry became a major employer with an accompanying increase in the use of new chemicals. In the United States (US), this realization and significant public pressure lead to the creation of a number of new governmental agencies in the 1970s. This included the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). With these new Agencies, there were a host of new policies and regulations which further helped to define the “problem.” Meanwhile, population growth and the ability of the planet to support that growth also became a point of discussion in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world.
About this time, a group of industrial experts and scientists that were concerned with the social and ecological impacts of development formed a group called the Club of Rome (it was started by the Italian Aurelio Peccei and their first meeting was held in Rome). Ironically, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under Jay Forrester developed their first and very highly successful report, Limits to Growth (1). From the introduction to this 1972 publication, the authors state their overall conclusions as follows:
Our conclusions are as follows:
1 If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next 100 years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.
2 It is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable (italics added) far into the future. The state of global equilibrium could be designed so that the basic material needs of each person on earth are satisfied and each person has an equal opportunity to realize his individual human potential.
3 If the world's people decide to strive for this second outcome rather than the first, the sooner they begin working to attain it, the greater will be their chances of success (2).
This concept of sustainability was further defined by the United Nations in their well‐referenced March, 1987 report titled, Our Common Future (3). This report was written by the World Commission on Environment and Development for the United Nations (UN) which was chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland and is often referred to as the Brundtland report. The most often quoted part of that report is:
Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (4).
This statement from the report is often quoted in a simpler fashion to state, “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This has been used as one of the most common definitions of sustainability.
These activities and others spurred a number of nongovernmental not‐for‐profit organizations that were interested in participating in the sustainability movement. One of these, an organization called the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), was formed in Boston in 1989. This organization was founded by Joan Bavaria, an asset manager, who teamed with a number of environmentalists to develop and promote ten principles for public companies:
1 Protection of the biosphere
2 Sustainable use of natural resources
3 Reduction and disposal of wastes
4 Energy conservation
5 Risk reduction
6 Safe products and services
7 Environmental restoration
8 Informing the public
9 Management commitment
10 Audits and reports.
While a relatively small organization, CERES has had a major influence on encouraging companies to adopt and report on their implementation of the CERES principles. Most importantly, their push for public reporting led to the formation of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in 1997 which we will discuss in more detail later.
The next major milestone for sustainability on a global scale was the first UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (commonly called the RIO conference). At the conference, a program recognizing the right of nations to pursue social and economic progress was developed. It was called Agenda 21. Agenda 21 specifically spelled out the “…the responsibility of adopting a model of sustainable development” (5). Stated more simply, Agenda 21 promoted economic and social development but done in an environmentally sustainable way.
In the summer of 2000, the United Nations published their Global Compact. The Global Compact was another CSR effort by the United Nations based on asking companies (and other organizations such as cities) to pledge to follow their 10 principles (6). Like the CERES principles, these were voluntary. The Global Compact principles are:
Human Rights
Principle 1: Support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and
Principle 2: Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
Labor Standards
Principle 3: the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor;