Selected pillars of corporate social responsibility in the context of sustainable development – environment and social involvement

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is changing, evolving and is still the subject of interest of many authors. Currently, CSR is not only an idea, but also an approach to management, an element of strategy and management of an organization. In integrating social responsibility with the activities of an organization, it is extremely important to understand the philosophy of social responsibility, its principles and benefits associated with it. When creating development strategies, enterprises voluntarily take into account social interests, the good of the natural environment, as well as relations with various stakeholder groups in their activities. The aim of the conducted research was to learn about the opinions of entrepreneurs on the concept of social responsibility, its main pillars, applied principles and examples of activities in this area, and to examine the relationships between individual activities in the area of ​​two pillars: environment and social involvement. The study was conducted in 2024 among SME sector enterprises. The selection of the sample for the research was purposeful. The research results show that the most important and most frequently indicated aspects of corporate social responsibility according to SME entrepreneurs within the pillar: environment were the promotion of ecological solutions, production of ecological products, use of ecological technologies, production processes and segregation of waste, recycling, disposal, reduction of harmful dust, waste. On the other hand, within the pillar of social involvement, the most important aspects of CSR were activities for the local community and society, including charitable activities and educational activities and raising public awareness. In the pillar of environment, statistically significant relationships between the areas studied are inversely proportional. The area of ​​education in the field of environmental protection shows a relationship with the area of ​​compliance with environmental protection standards and regulations, which in turn is additionally dependent on the area of ​​promoting ecological solutions. The area of ​​promoting ecological solutions also shows a relationship with the area of ​​saving water, energy, paper, etc. The area of ​​segregation of waste, recycling shows a relationship with the area of ​​saving water, energy, paper, etc. In the pillar of social involvement, statistically significant relationships between the areas occurring in it are also inversely proportional. The area of ​​action for the local community shows a relationship with the area of ​​cooperation with local institutions and this area is dependent on the area of ​​local development initiatives. The area of ​​local development initiatives shows a relationship with the area of ​​educational activities. Additionally, from the environment pillar, the area of ​​environmental protection education was positively correlated with the area from the social involvement pillar of employee volunteering for the local community. This means that there is a statistically significant relationship between these two areas. Also, the area of ​​promoting ecological solutions is positively correlated with the area of ​​local development initiatives from the social involvement pillar, which means that when choosing this area, respondents also chose the mentioned area from the social involvement pillar. The area of ​​employee volunteering for the local community did not show a statistically significant relationship with the other areas examined in this pillar.