The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Plastic Industry

Sustainable development goals are built upon resolution A/RES/70/1 titled “The Future Want” (Black 2017, p.170). The primary goal of SDGs is to advocate for developments that does not comprise abilities of future generations while meeting the needs of the present generations (Barbier and Burgess 2017, p.16). SDGs are based on three pillars, society, environment, and economy. The SDGs and requirement by the external stakeholders affect the manufacturing industries extensively. As such, firms integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their production processes to ensure sustainable development.

Technological advances have led to unsustainable production processes in industries such as the plastic industry (Pellis et al. p.866). Polymer materials from plastic firms are a threat to climate change, yet they are important for a wide range of industries such as transport, aerospace, electronics, building, and construction among others. In as much as plastics are critical in economic development, they reduce abilities of future generations to sustain their living standards (Charter and Tischner 2017, p.21). For this reason, firms in the plastic industry need to implement strategies that will ensure sustainable development.

Plastic firms are usually required to balance environmental, social, and economic dimensions in their processes. However, there is a considerable gap in the way plastic industry firms incorporate CSR initiatives that facilitate sustainable development (Vince and Hardesty 2017, p.125). Importantly, it is critical for firms to implement strategic CSR, as they are fundamental to the attainment of sustainable development. The following research aims to identify ways that CSR can be used in plastic industry to ensure sustainable development of communities while ensuring firms gain a competitive advantage. A qualitative research will be used to gain a comprehensive understanding of CSR initiatives processes such as planning, alignment of initiatives into firms’ objectives, and their implementation plastic industry.

References

Black, D., 2017. Guest editorial: industry and sustainability. Johnson Matthey Technology Review, 61(3), pp.170-171.

Charter, M. and Tischner, U. eds., 2017. Sustainable solutions: developing products and services for the future. London: Routledge.

Barbier, E.B., and Burgess, J.C., 2017. The sustainable development goals and the systems approach to sustainability. Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, 11(2017-28), pp.1-23.

Pellis, A., Herrero Acero, E., Gardossi, L., Ferrario, V., and Guebitz, G.M., 2016. Renewable building blocks for sustainable polyesters: new biotechnological routes for greener plastics. Polymer International, 65(8), pp.861-871.

Vince, J., and Hardesty, B.D., 2017. Plastic pollution challenges in marine and coastal environments: from local to global governance. Restoration Ecology, 25(1), pp.123-128.