It has become common to think that CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and Sustainable Development are synonymous. From this viewpoint, CSR means sustainable development for business, while the term "sustainable development" refers more to public institutions and local authorities.

There is no truth in this. Although both Sustainable Development and CSR contribute to healing the wounds of 150 years' economic development with consequences that have been socially questionable and ecologically catastrophic, the two concepts have quite different foundations and political aims.. and these differences should not be understated.

Intra- and inter-generational solidarity for sustainable development

The Brundtland Report defines sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". For Mrs Brundtland, solidarity within and between generations is the origin of the ambition to achieve sustainable development.

The intra-generational dimension requires greater social equity than exists at present, and thus a better distribution of the wealth produced from natural resources that must be preserved. The inter-generational dimension requires moderation in the use of all our resources to preserve the quality of life of future generations on this planet. We can clearly see that the environmental ambition is a condition of the social ambition. We can also see that the economy is just a means of human development, and never an end in itself. Finally, it is clear that an unprecedented effort of governance will be required for humanity to achieve this political ambition.

CSR – an adaptation to environmental, social and governance-related risks. CSR does not take account of the political ambition of sustainable development

CSR is historically a product of the Anglo-Saxon nations. The approach originated with American investment funds and their fear of seeing companies lose value under the assault of NGOs' denunciations of major international corporations for their abhorrent social and environmental practices. These investment funds wanted to impose new rules of governance obliging these major corporations to limit the risks they were imposing on their shareholders. The priority for a business from a CSR viewpoint is to minimise its environmental and social effort in the light of the external risk it perceives, by tweaking its mode of governance (transparency, regulation etc.).

On the other hand, the priority for a business from a sustainable development viewpoint is to transform its operation, organisation and production methods fundamentally in order to live up to its responsibilities as an institution, a human community with a social purpose in the broad sense of the term. This cannot be achieved without radical changes to its governance to re-establish itself as a social actor in a balanced relationship with all its stakeholders. Having contributed to the emergence of the concept of corporate citizenship, Synergence and I are resolutely committed to the perspective of sustainable development within business. We work with companies that place their trust in us to ensure that their approach to CSR is not an alternative to sustainable development, but a first step in their transformation.

Didier Livio

Keywords: sustainable development

Written on 12 November 2008