Integrating Environmental Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Move Beyond Profit: Corporate Social Responsibility for Environmental Sustainability

The synergistic and symbiotic relationship between social responsibility and sustainability has evolved over the years with enterprises becoming more aware of their commitment towards ethical, equitable, inclusive, and environmentally conscious practices. Adopting a socially responsible attitude by the new age entrepreneurs represents the paradigm shift in how corporations understand and undertake their regular activities. The traditional objective of wealth maximisation that the enterprises followed led to severe misutilisation of resources in terms of its environmental and societal impact and led to severe corporate disasters. It gave rise to adopting alternative objectives that are not only holistic but also combine concern for profits, humanity, society, and, above all, the environment. The result is that almost every major corporation has adopted a code of conduct and established the necessary management structures and procedures to ensure compliance with the newly framed objective of socially responsible profits. Consequently, the concept of corporate social responsibility has acquired momentum in recent times. This has come after the realisation that social responsibility is a significant environmental and organisational sustainability dimension that only some enterprises can sustain for a while. Over the years, this harmonisation has ushered in significant progress, reshaping the perspective of businesses towards their societal and environmental impact.