Abstract
The purpose of the chapter is to present the definition, historical background, and core elements of the concept related to sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and the triple bottom line. Common relationships and the differences between these concepts were indicated on the basis of the gathered information scattered in the scientific literature. The empirical part of the chapter allows the assessment of whether the enterprises really refer to the concepts known in the literature. It also presents an assessment of the stage of business today, referring to the business sustainability typology by using research methods such as case survey and TOPSIS.
TopIntroduction
The development of science in Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been going on for at least 50 years. Although the time of origin and development of both concepts are different, they should be considered as complementary. CSR was developed first, but it is narrower than a concept of Sustainability and should be considered as a way of business to achieve the Sustainability. However, fulfilling the Sustainability is not simple and needs a certain path which could be described by a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) model, at least to a certain degree.
Triple Bottom Line (TBL) or People, Planet, Profit (3Ps) model provides a deeper look at both concepts of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility. Figure 1. shows the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability through the concept of the Triple Bottom Line, which is the fundamental aspect of the considerations in this chapter.
Figure 1. The relationship between Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility through the Triple Bottom Line
In this chapter the origins, history and ideas of concepts related to Sustainability, CSR and TBL will be presented. The purpose of the chapter is to show how the latter concept can be perceived as a link and what are the limitations associated with this kind of thinking. In the empirical part of the chapter, an attempt was made to assess the implementation of the TBL concept by enterprises, as well as the reinvented concept of Corporate Social Responsibility - CSR 2.0, and to examine in which phase of the Business Sustainability Typology enterprises are in.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Case Survey: A research method of aggregating qualitative and descriptive information in existing case study literature and making it susceptible to quantitative analysis.
Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS): A research method that creates a synthetic measure on the basis of many features, most often used in the decision-making process.
Triple Bottom Line (TBL, 3BL, 3PP): A sustainability framework that examines the enterprise’s social, environment, and economic impact.
Sustainability: The concept referred as a state of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Weak Sustainability: A concept of sustainability which assumes that social, environmental and economic (financial) capital are interchangeable.
Sustainable Development: The concept referred as a process to the state of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Corporate Social Responsibility 2.0 (CSR 2.0): Reinvented and more radical version of Corporate Social Responsibility concept.
Strong Sustainability: A concept of Sustainability which assumes that social, environmental and economic (financial) capital are complementary, but not interchangeable.
Business Sustainability Typology: The proposal for the evolution of enterprises towards full sustainable business, which can be defined as the path of business to sustainability.