CSR Priorities in the Software Industry

Information and communications technologies (ICT) have a major impact on today’s global society facilitating many aspects of the modern life. They also have the potential to address many of the sustainability challenges. In the latest years, the software companies have started to design and to implement specific CSR policies at the level of the whole organization and to include sustainability criteria into product strategies. Compared to other industries, the software industry still has to define its specific CSR priorities, models and methodologies. These cannot be transplanted from other industries as they may not be relevant to the software industry.

Research undertaken has shown that the software industry can contribute to sustainable development through the creation of products and services that can improve the way people, business and networks interact in order to achieve sustainable development. The software industry can have a positive contribution to sustainable development in several areas.

Improved access to information leads to better decision-making processes and better governance which can benefit all stakeholders. Information and communication technology facilitate multi-stakeholder governance by enabling collaborative and interdisciplinary problem solving.

Information and communication technologies have a fundamental role in improving the process of education even though they are just one of the components of a holistic approach to improved education. Software applications like epidemiological modeling, remote health consultation or health management records can help to improve health care quality, reduce medical errors and reduce health care costs.

The software industry can help to achieve environmental objectives. Research has been undertaken in order to assess the potential of information and communication technologies to reduce greenhouse emissions. Software applications have been developed in order to help gathering information about water, soil, air and ozone indicators into one place. This application would allow people to identify polluted beaches and consequently to protect their health. Another software application has been designed to administer the data on chemical substances. On the basis of information entered in the database it can generate reports in formats suitable to meet the reporting requirements of various regulatory agencies.

Moreover, software facilitates access to the global economies to a broader number of participants and it allows the creation of new markets and of new kinds of financial services.

In this post, I have focused mainly on the positive aspects of information technologies and on the contribution they can bring to sustainable development. The software industry has still to work in order to develop and improve products and services in order to answer the challenges of sustainable development. The danger to use these applications unethically has been emphasized many times especially with regard to issues like privacy and free expression.

Still, research undertaken allows us to say that these new applications are emerging and that they have the potential to bring positive change.

Milena Moraru is a Ph.D. researcher at European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

Business for Social Responsibility prepared a report on this topic, “Software accelerates Sustainable Development”, which is available at www.bsr.org.