Any thinking about preserving the environment is a typical topic of socially responsible action. Today, the notion of social responsibility is abused for various political and business purposes and only left to various civil initiatives. It remains at the level of declarations, voluntary thinking, and philanthropy, albeit it has some impact on corporate practice. The chapter explains that the concept of social responsibility is not something new, as it has accompanied humanity since its inception. Adherence to the principles of social responsibility is a precondition for further successful development, not only of individual companies or countries but of human society in general. It is useful to reflect on the past development regarding the awareness of social responsibility and also the need for future consistent implementation of its principles, especially from the perspective of a sustainable environment. An important direction is to treat the earth as a stakeholder to which companies and individuals are indebted.
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During the last forty years or so, the concept of social responsibility has transformed from an irrelevant idea into one of widely accepted approaches to understanding business and all global developments as well.
Understanding and addressing the social responsibility (SR) is one of the preconditions for creating and establishing economic democracy towards achieving a sustainable future. The basic justification for the need for economic democracy is already rooted in the fundamental principles of social responsibility. Authors as well as international institutions define social responsibility in many ways. Among them is very important ISO standard (BSI, 2020) with seven principles: responsibility for the impact (accountability), transparency of data, ethical behavior, respect for interests of stakeholders, respect for the rule of law, respect for international norms of behavior, respect for human rights. Here are also a few other short examples: responsibility for future generations, for workers and human creativity, for income inequality, for governance, for the elderly, for entrepreneurship, for health, for politics and for history.
Social responsibility can be considered as the responsibility of various entities and/or activities (states, communities, business, students etc.); however, perhaps the greatest emphasis in the literature is on corporate social responsibility (CSR).1 Such a view is supported by numerous authors (Wan-Jan, 2006; Khan et al., 2012; Hamidu et al., 2015; Jusoh, 2020) and in the handbooks of the Institute of Corporate Culture Affairs (ICCA, 2006) and A-Z (ICCA, 2010). Nevertheless, in addition to CSR, individuals are a key area for reflection on social responsibility (Benabou & Tirole, 2009; Joseph, 2014; Davis et al., 2017).