Towards Corporate Sustainability under Global Agenda 2030: Insights from Brazilian Forest Companies

Authors

Keywords:

Brazilian forest sector, forest industry, pulp and paper industry, corporate responsibility, sustainable development goals, qualitative interviews

Abstract

To increase our understanding of corporate responsibility (CSR/CR) in the forest sector in the context of an
emerging economy, we analyze how CR managers in Brazilian forest companies perceive ISO 26000, which is
an international standard to implement CSR. We also enhance the understanding of how corporate responsibility
managers perceive the future contribution of the forest sector to the United Nations (UN) agenda 2030 and the
implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our findings indicate that forest sector management
in Brazil is focused on environmental issues when implementing their sustainability agenda, but social issues
are increasingly being included, especially in the agendas of smaller companies. Large-sized companies play a
particularly important role in influencing the value chain, and ISO 26000, among other initiatives could be one
way of reaching this goal. The managers interviewed identify combatting climate change impacts (SDG number
13) as potentially contributing the most towards sustainable development.

Author Biography

Julia Tauszig

Professor, Department of Forest Sciences

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Published

2017-10-19

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Section

Empirical Manuscripts