Social sustainability means responsibility for people. It is guided by the UN’s universal human rights and the ILO conventions.
Social sustainability, or social responsibility, means responsibility for people. It is guided by the UN’s universal human rights and the ILO conventions. Social sustainability and human rights responsibility extend to the sphere of influence of a company, to the places where its activities meet people.
Companies must respect human rights. They have the responsibility to identify, prevent and mitigate adverse human rights impacts that may arise from their activities. The company’s activities must not have a negative impact on human rights.
The responsibility to respect human rights applies to all companies, whether large, small, limited, state-owned, holding, franchised or family-owned, and regardless of the sector or industry in which they operate. These parameters only affect on procedures and course of action taken in respecting human rights, as well as the responsibilities in providing remedy.
The CSRD, EU taxonomy and the CS3D are EU directives regulating the corporate sustainability. The directives main focus is on reporting, transparency and stakeholder involvement. From human rights perspective, they guide companies to identify their most relevant human rights impacts through a human rights impact assessment.
Corporate social sustainability is based on human rights, extending human rights themes to work-life. The company’s work climate, management practices, corporate culture and stakeholder cooperation reflect its corporate social responsibility. Concrete elements include well-being at work, occupational safety, trade union rights, opportunities for development at work, inclusion, non-discrimination and equality principles in areas such as remuneration, working hours, recruitment and induction.
Corporate social sustainability strategy should be based on the company’s identified human rights impacts and business objectives. Listening to stakeholders e.g. through materiality analysis provides additional insight into the issues that are important to them and the relevance of those to the stakeholders. However, materiality analysis is not a substitute for the human rights impact assessment required by the regulations.
Social sustainability in sourcing and procurement is an essential part of business risk management. In the supply chain, each company is responsible for preventing and mitigating the negative impacts of its activities. It is the responsibility of the client company to be aware of the potential risks in its supply chain. It must exercise informed decision-making in its business operations and use its influence, e.g. with business contracts, to eliminate or reduce the social risks and negative human rights impacts associated with its procurement activities.
Social sustainability codes (e.g. ETI, SA8000) are based on UN human rights and the core conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). By committing to a code of social sustainability, companies commit to stricter requirements than local legislation if they operate in a country that has not, for example, ratified the core ILO conventions.
It is said that responsibility is to leave the environment in a better state than it was when first arrived.
Social sustainability aims to do the same. Employees of responsible companies develop and prosper through their work.
A responsible company respects human rights and ensures fair practices in all its business activities.
A responsible company is aware of potential risks, and aims to prevent them in advance by reducing or eliminating adverse impacts.
A responsible company is a trusted and desirable partner and employer.
Internally, corporate social sustainability focuses on working conditions, employment, pay and non-discrimination. The related HR processes should be built on the principles of corporate sustainability with measures to follow-up on their proper implementation.
HR processes cover the entire employment lifecycle, and contribute to employee experience.
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