Corporate Social Responsibility And Sustainability: A Perspective From The Oil And Gas Industry

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an extension of the corporate role which encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities that a company must fulfill, such that it improves the overall quality of life of the community around it. Sustainable development (SD) on the other hand involves operations that have a minimal impact on the environment. However, in today’s global environment, governments around the world are implementing stricter environmental regulations and supporting higher standards of living for their citizens. This socially and environmentally conscious undertone has made it imperative for organizations to address issues related to CSR and SD seriously and in many cases with the highest urgency. Successful implementation CSR and CS strategies are very vital for oil and gas industries due to fact that these industries are very responsible for the global environment as well as these companies represent the top wealthy industries of the world. The three oil and gas industries (Shell, BP, and Total S.A.) that have been analyzed in this project work, demonstrate that their CS and CSR strategies are not the same and there is scope of improvement. From the comparative analysis, BP’s investment (0.8% of the net annual profit) in community development is very low compared to the investment in community development of Shell (5.5% of Net annual profit) and Total S.A. (4.77% of Net annual profit) which clearly indicates that BP’s CSR strategies are not sustainable also BP’s TBL aspects are not balanced in this case.