"Corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility are different from each other but have strong convergence as well". Discuss.

Although scholars and practitioners often interpret Corporate Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility as being nearly synonymous, pointing to similarities and the common domain. The two concepts have different backgrounds and different theoretical paths. Corporate Sustainability can be considered as an attempt to adopt the concept of Sustainable Development to the corporate setting, matching the goal of value creation with environmental and social considerations. According to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, 'Corporate Sustainability is a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. Corporate Sustainability includes an attempt to assimilate the environmental and social dimensions into business operations, processes, products and procedures. In practical terms, the Corporate Sustainability approach leads to a very concrete and pragmatic solution to the problem of how to measure performance and how natural and social values can be incorporated into corporate accounting. The evolutionary part of the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility is different from that of the Corporate Sustainability. The first recognized contribution in the literature dates back to Bowen, who stressed the responsibilities of businesses, and wrote that social responsibility refers to the obligations of the businessmen to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society. Besides economic and legal responsibilities (that is, to be able to make profits as well as obey the law), companies are expected to satisfy other requirements, relevant to the conformity to social norms and voluntary contributions to the community in which they operate. Another important Corporate Social Responsibility approach was developed during the 1980s in the light of the growth of the stakeholder approach. In nut-shell, the Corporate Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility can be differentiated on the following points: Basis Corporate Sustainability Corporate Social Responsibility Vision It looks forward, planning the changes a business might make to secure its future (reducing waste, assuring supply chains, developing new markets, building its brand. It looks backwards, reporting on what a business has done, typically in the last 12 months, to make a contribution to society. Targets It targets the whole value chain - from suppliers to operations to partners to end-consumers. It tends to target opinion formers - politicians, pressure groups, media. Business It is about business. It is becoming about compliance. Management It is by operations and marketing. It gets manages by communications teams. Reward Sustainability investment is rewarded by the environment. CSR investment is rewarded by politicians. Drive Sustainability is driven by the need to create opportunities in emerging markets. CSR is driven by the need to protect reputations in developed markets. Convergence: Although Corporate Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility have different roots and have developed along diverse theoretical paths, they have ultimately converged. This strong convergence is evident in some recent definitions of the Corporate Social Responsibility provided by international organizations, like the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum: Corporate Social Responsibility means open and transparent business practices that are based on ethical values and have respect for their employees, communities and environment. It is designed to deliver sustainable value to society at large, as well as to the shareholders. The concept of sustainable development has been transposed from the macro to the corporate dimensions. Companies, in fact, are a productive resource of our socio-economic system, and key to the eventual implementation of sustainability. According to the management theory, the attempt to include sustainability issues in the managerial framework can be divided into two separate issues: Corporate Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility.