Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Sustainable Development and Corporate Sustainability: What Is the Difference, and Does It Matter?
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Canberra Law School, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT 2617, Australia
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Department Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna, 40125 Bologna, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Jorge Matute
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5965; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115965
Received: 9 February 2021
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Revised: 4 May 2021
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Accepted: 14 May 2021
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Published: 25 May 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Business, Corporate Social Responsibility and Law)
The terms “corporate social responsibility” (CSR), “sustainability”, “sustainable development” and “corporate sustainability” (CS) are critical terms for developing, analysing and evaluating public and private policy goals. These terms are used to make decisions about investment, policy development, and strategy creation. The terms emerged in different fields of endeavour at different points in time. Accordingly, they have different meanings; however, over time they have come to be used interchangeably mixing up policy agendas, confusing managers, regulators, activists and the public at large. We demonstrate that CSR is the best term for focusing on individual business organisations, “corporate sustainability” is an organisation level environmental policy, “sustainable development” is a public policy, and “sustainability” is the broadest term encompassing global local and organisational levels.
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Keywords:
definitions; corporate social responsibility; corporate sustainability; sustainable development goals; sustainability
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MDPI and ACS Style
Sheehy, B.; Farneti, F. Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Sustainable Development and Corporate Sustainability: What Is the Difference, and Does It Matter? Sustainability 2021, 13, 5965. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115965
AMA Style
Sheehy B, Farneti F. Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Sustainable Development and Corporate Sustainability: What Is the Difference, and Does It Matter? Sustainability. 2021; 13(11):5965. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115965
Chicago/Turabian StyleSheehy, Benedict, and Federica Farneti. 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Sustainable Development and Corporate Sustainability: What Is the Difference, and Does It Matter?" Sustainability 13, no. 11: 5965. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115965
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