2. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a company's contribution to the challenges of sustainable development

The notion of sustainable development (SD) was first developed at the level of nations. Companies that apply the elements and concepts of SD that are relevant to them are referred to as responsible companies. The set of objectives, concepts and actions that enable a company to act responsibly, i.e. to participate in the SD process, is called corporate social responsibility (CSR) ( see Defining corporate social responsibility [FIC 0496] ).

For companies, CSR, i.e. involvement in the sustainable development process, involves a long-term...