Briefing Paper 25. From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Accountability and Beyond

There is no single, universally accepted definition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), but most definitions from public, private and civil society sources agree on key points. CSR involves companies assessing the social and environmental impacts of their work, voluntarily integrating practices and policies that address concerns about these impacts, and undertaking ongoing engagement with public stakeholders. Central to the idea of CSR is that companies have obligations to contribute to sustainable development in the wider community and that ‘responsibility’ means not only fulfilling legal obligations, but rather sticking to the ‘triple bottom line’ of ‘People, Planet and Profit’. This paper examines how the various approaches to changing corporate behaviour, which fall under ‘CSR’, are evolving.