The evolution of sustainable development

A central principle of corporate social responsibility is that firms should treat their stakeholders in an ethical fashion and that this behaviour should embrace environmental, as well as economic and social considerations. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a theoretical exploration of the concept of sustainable development in its broadest sense and, in so doing, encourage researchers and practitioners to locate and progress with their corporate social responsibility work within a robust ‘sustainable development’ framework. There is an increasing appreciation that Earth’s ecological systems cannot indefinitely sustain present trajectories of human activity. The nature and scale of human activity is exceeding the carrying capacity of the Earth’s resource base, and the resultant waste and pollution streams are exceeding the assimilative capacity. The contribution of the built environment and construction activity to this unsustainable human activity is substantial, and Lenssen and Roodman argue that: