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9.2 CSR and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Since September 25, 2015, when all 193 member states of the United Nations formally adopted
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a shared global development agenda, CSR has
come to represent far more than a management tool for businesses to enhance their value and
contributions to society and the environment. It has also become a powerful means of
supporting the achievement of the SDGs within the target timeframe of 2030.

In their 2022 article Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a Framework for Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR), Niloufar Fallah Shayan and colleagues proposed that the SDGs can serve
as a practical framework for companies to implement CSR strategies. The SDGs are globally

recognized and grounded in the principle of generating collective benefit. As such, they offer
both credibility and comprehensiveness, while also aligning closely with real-world CSR practice.
Moreover, the goals reflect core sustainability issues that benefit all stakeholders, including the
private sector, by offering a clear structure for CSR implementation (see Figure 9.1).

In today’s business landscape, both CSR and the SDGs are already being actively pursued. When
companies align their CSR activities with the SDGs, they directly contribute to the realization of
the United Nations’ vision: a sustainable, efficient, safe, and productive world by the year 2030.
The SDGs were developed by experts from around the globe, based on years of research and

analysis, to build a foundation for this shared vision. At their core, the SDGs aim to strengthen
the essential underpinnings of life for all people on Earth.

Niloufar Fallah Shayan and colleagues (2022) also proposed an integrated operational
framework that links CSR with the SDGs. This framework serves two goals simultaneously: (1)
enabling businesses to support and sustain the environment, society, and the economy, while
(2) allowing them to increase profitability and drive organizational development. This
integrated model, referred to as the CSR framework based on the SDGs, is illustrated in Figure
9.2.

Figure 9.2 presents a CSR model that uses the SDGs as its operational framework. The original
CSR model (see Figure 9.1) identified 11 internal and external driving factors and led to eight
forms of value creation for businesses (CSR Corporate Value Creation). That model defined CSR
activities in three key dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. When applying the
SDGs to this CSR framework, all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals can be mapped onto
these three dimensions. This expanded model enables the creation of an additional eight forms
of value at the global level (SDGs Universal Value Creation), on top of the original eight
corporate values. Since the SDGs were designed with attention to both present and future
needs, they integrate short- and long-term visions, encompassing individuals, nations, and the

global community. As such, they align with all five core scopes of CSR. Moreover, the four key
targets and responsibilities of CSR can also be fulfilled through the SDGs, as these goals were
intentionally crafted by the UN to support human well-being, disaster prevention, and
multidimensional, inclusive volunteerism.
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