How the COVID-19 Pandemic Probably Accelerated CSR Global Awareness

Abstract

One can always blame that the pandemic has again revealed the weaknesses of our international governance. One can also blame governments for not being able to more quickly draw lessons from the Covid-19 crisis. Nevertheless, despite very different and uncoordinated agendas from various stakeholders involved across the world, we see a first convergence around corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental social and governance (ESG) agendas in the context of increasing climate change and ecological transition global awareness.

Even if their interests are very different by design, global stakeholders share at least the fact that our planet has now reached its limits in terms of resources and their exploitation. Even if some consider that humanity, not to say Humanism, is slow to happen on the global scale, we see the early stages of stronger corporate responsibility of all stakeholders, including and starting with the business sector. Corporate business has positively moved from a ‘greenwashing’ attitude at the end of twentieth century and beginning of the new one, to a more integrated and risks-related corporate responsibility awareness that now appears to be a must have.

Citation

Boyer, R. (2023), "How the COVID-19 Pandemic Probably Accelerated CSR Global Awareness", Chatterji, M., Luterbacher, U., Fert, V. and Chen, B. (Ed.) Globalisation and COVID-19 (Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Vol. 31), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 141-145. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1572-832320230000031008