The Business of Social Sustainability

 

We looked at social sustainability in a broader sense, but it’s also very important to look more intensely at its importance in business.

How businesses interact with their market (a.k.a. people) and how these interactions affect both the company and society is also social sustainability—or to be more exact, corporate social responsibility.

This form of social sustainability is—or should be—very important to businesses as social sustainability is closely linked to the success of a company or startup.

How do you tell that a business is involved in social sustainability or how do you ensure your business reflects social sustainability? Let’s look at that this week.

Obviously the concept of human rights ranks high on the list of important factors when it comes to social sustainability in business.

How businesses treat marginalized groups plays heavily into how the company contributes to social sustainability. Have steps been taken to ensure equality in labour? Access to services?

The big hurdle to pass to reach worldwide corporate social sustainability is likely child labour. This, of course, is an issue that has been on the forefront of our minds for years (it was one of the original aims set by the International Labor Organization (ILO) back in 1919) but is not yet a problem we’ve solved. According to the UN, 152 million children are currently facing this grim reality and half of them are working in hazardous environments.

The ILO has initiated a program to eliminate child labour in modern society. Called the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, the initiative works with countries to help them manage the child labour crisis.

Certain corporations are also taking steps. Alliance One and Philip Morris, for example, have initiated Agricultural Labor Practices programs to reduce and eventually eliminate child labour within their workforce.

Any decent business owner would want their business to show a belief in human rights, as this is imperative to a good public image.

Another key sign of a company’s true commitment to social sustainability is its relationship to poverty. Companies whose workers are underpaid or face constant job insecurity cannot in good conscience step forward and assert that they are a socially sustainable business.

Much has been said about the Living Wage and its importance to a successful society. Detractors, of course, try to raise boogeymen by saying raising the minimum wage will reduce available jobs and claiming minimum wage workers are all high school students working part-time jobs. Both of these claims are not true as previous wage increases have had limited negative impact on employment levels while 82% of people making minimum wage are over the age of 20 and 58% are working full time.

Socially sustainable businesses understand the importance of ensuring their employees are properly and fairly paid and have stable employment.

Pay attention to how a business acts. Many corporations make grandiose claims regarding their relationship to society and the world at large but reality can be easily uncovered.

We should be fighting for all businesses to be socially sustainable. Make sure you do your research and only support the companies that are helping us create a superior society.