What is responsible business?

While we acknowledge that understandings of responsible business are contested and can be defined in different ways, the Centre for Responsible Business’s interdisciplinary engagement with different types of environmental, social and economic challenges allows us to draft and regularly revisit a dynamic, living definition of what it means to us. The intention of this definition is to stimulate discussion, debate, learning and consideration of what responsible business might mean now and in the future.

When we think of ‘responsible business’ we tend to think about organisations and how they can act in a ‘responsible’ manner. This research agenda has heavily debated academic foundations and involves examining the various dimensions of ‘responsibility’, and what it might mean for businesses to pursue or meet a given understanding of these issues. Such a research agenda spans social science disciplines, and considers ideas of business ethics, corporate social responsibility (CSR), stakeholder theory, and most recently the rise of, and countermovement to, environmental, social and governance (ESG) forms of evaluation. This provides a practical agenda to responsible business, helping individual businesses and related parties to develop their understandings of responsibility, and subsequently how to incorporate and monitor them throughout their organisations, activities and spheres of influence and impact. We call this ‘Business Purpose and Practice’, and the thinking and tools that we have developed can be found in our website and publications.

While a focus upon the values and activities of individual businesses continues to be an important aspect of our research and engagement, we recognise that responsible business also refers to the ways that ‘business’ – as collective, relational acts in providing goods and services to humanity – has wide-reaching consequences now and into the future. As such, our research locates business within interrelated, complex systems, where planet, society and economy are inextricably interdependent. From this perspective, business both shapes and is shaped by the systems in which it operates and has a shared responsibility for the environmental, social, and economic sustainability and equity of these systems. Hence, the responsibility of business extends to realising globally agreed commitments, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), however contested and tensional these goals may be.

This perspective brings into the scope of the Centre research on the forms of institutional governance of business at different spatial scales, including national and international reporting standards, and forms of taxation and regulation, which are central to how responsible business is shaped. It also makes the societal and planetary impacts of business and how to address them, without causing additional harms, of central importance. This understanding of responsible business empowers our associates to imagine future systems of production and consumption for a better, more equitable future for nature, society and economy.

In summary we understand responsible business as a field of research where organisations exist within complex, inter-related natural, social and economic systems. There can be no single definition of responsibility for organisations to follow, but it extends to the sustainability and equity of the systems upon which humanity depends. As such we understand responsible businesses to be purposeful, engaged, accountable agents, and the field of responsible business to recognise the situated, collective and relational nature of business. The field is dynamic and evolving with regard our understanding of each of these dimensions.

Being a responsible business isn’t just about sustainability. It covers everything from governance and leadership to production methods and relationships with customers and stakeholders. Being responsible will naturally mean different things for different companies, depending on where they are in their journey. The priorities for responsible businesses in Malawi, for instance, might differ from those in Sweden.

Our research has found that responsible businesses, regardless of size or sector, share common traits:

• They aren’t just growing or profitable but purposeful.
• They manage even what they can’t measure and are fully transparent to their stakeholders.
• They recognise the value of connected and circular thinking and respect planetary boundaries.
• They don’t wait for consumer demand to make sustainable changes and embrace their role as citizens in society.
• They use protocols and inclusive, collaborative working to avoid making irresponsible decisions.

At its core, being responsible is about having a proactive mindset that constantly questions the sustainability of a business and never accepts ‘don’t know’ as an answer. Those leading this mindset are helping to create a new approach to responsible business by exploring new ideas and sharing their unique experiences of sustainability.

A responsible business aligns its purpose and practices with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), integrating them into its strategy and operations. These goals, adopted by 193 countries in 2015, aim to create a fairer, more sustainable world by 2030. They provide clear targets and indicators for governments, businesses, and individuals to follow. For businesses, these goals clarify what it means to operate responsibly, offering specific, measurable targets and indicators. Even if imperfect, they also provide a framework and vocabulary for negotiating the purpose of all organisations and account for what is valued, valuable and socially acceptable.

The Sustainable Development Goals are all interconnected and action in one area will affect outcomes in others. They can be grouped in many different ways, but it is useful to think of them in three clusters:

• Economic (Global Goals 7, 8, 9 and 12)
• Societal (Global Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 16 and 17)
• Planetary (Global Goals 6, 13, 14 and 15)

Find out more about the Sustainable Development Goals on the United Nations website.