The Importance of Software Sustainability in the CSR of Software Companies

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Software Sustainability

Abstract

Organizations around the world, as well as their stakeholders, are becoming increasingly aware of the need for, and the benefits of, socially responsible behavior, and sustainability is a core aspect of this. Given the presence of software systems in most companies and almost every aspect of modern-day life, the promotion of the environmental aspects of software systems is a key factor in sustainable development, and any company aspiring to be considered as a first-class corporate citizen should provide for it in their CSR.

This chapter aims to ascertain how well the policies of companies that develop software are aligned with Software Sustainability, as well as to give recommendations on including specific actions in their CSR to promote Software Sustainability.

The CSR policies of the ten biggest software companies have been studied, identifying a list of actions that the software industry should include in their CSR. In order to do this, different meetings were held among researchers. As a result, a list of actions specific to Software Sustainability that the software industry should be including in their CSR has been proposed. Moreover, we have analyzed the CSR of a Spanish software company, obtaining that the percentage of coverage in respect of the actions defined is 40%. The dimension with more actions is the human dimension, where the percentage of coverage is above 90%. Regarding the economic and environmental dimensions, the company took into consideration 36% and 13% of the actions, respectively. These resulted in a D level of Software Sustainability (possible values: A–E). Based on these results, we have suggested some actions to be implemented in order to improve the industry’s Software Sustainability level.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
EUR 29.95
Price includes VAT (France)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
EUR 117.69
Price includes VAT (France)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
EUR 147.69
Price includes VAT (France)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free ship** worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
EUR 147.69
Price includes VAT (France)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free ship** worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Baumgartner R (2014) Managing corporate sustainability and CSR: a conceptual framework combining values, strategies and instruments contributing to sustainable development. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 21. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1336

  2. ISO26000 (2010) Guidance on social responsibility

    Google Scholar 

  3. UN (1987) Report of the World Commission on environment and development: our common future. In: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

    Google Scholar 

  4. Du W, Pan SL, Zuo M (2013) How to balance sustainability and profitability in technology organisations: an ambidextrous perspective. IEEE Trans Eng Manag 60(2):366–385. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2012.2206113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Lüdeke-Freund F, Dembek K (2017) Sustainable business model research and practice: emerging field or passing fancy? J Clean Prod 168:1668–1678

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Sroufe R, Sarkis J (eds) (2007) Strategic sustainability: the state of the art in corporate environmental management systems. Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield

    Google Scholar 

  7. Penzenstadler B, Bauer V, Calero C, Franch X (2012) Sustainability in software engineering: a systematic literature review for building up a knowledge base. In: 16th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE 2012)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Dick M, Naumann S, Kuhn N (2010) A model and selected instances of green and sustainable software. Springer, Berlin, pp 248–259

    Google Scholar 

  9. Dick M, Naumann S (2010) Enhancing software engineering processes towards sustainable software product design. In: Greve K, Cremers AB (eds) 24th International Conference on Informatics for Environmental Protection. pp. 706–715

    Google Scholar 

  10. Dyllick T, Hockerts K (2002) Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability. Bus Strateg Environ 11:130–141. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Friedman J (2013) Milton Friedman was wrong about corporate social responsibility. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-friedman/milton-friedman-was-wrong_b_3417866.html. Accessed 2017

  12. Alcaide M, De La Poza E, Guadalajara N (2019) The impact of corporate social responsibility transparency on the financial performance, brand value, and sustainability level of IT companies. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 27:642–654. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1829

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Nave A, Ferreira J (2019) Corporate social responsibility strategies: past research and future challenges. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 26(4):885–901

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Butler T (2011) Compliance with institutional imperatives on environmental sustainability: building theory on the role of Green IS. J Strateg Inf Syst 20(1):6–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2010.09.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Seth S (2017) World’s top 10 software companies. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/121714/worlds-top-10-software-companies.asp

  16. Calero C, García-Rodríguez de Guzmán I, Moraga M, García F (2019) Is software sustainability considered in the CSR of software industry? Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol 26(5):439–459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Calero C, Piattini M (2017) Puzzling out software sustainability. Sustain Comput J Sustain Comput Inf Syst 16:117–124

    Google Scholar 

  18. Stoller K (2017) The world’s largest tech companies 2017: Apple and Samsung Lead, Facebook Rises. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinstoller/2017/05/24/the-worlds-largest-tech-companies-2017-apple-and-samsung-lead-facebook-rises/#274f0e72d140. Accessed Nov 2017

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work has been funded by the BIZDEVOPS-GLOBAL project (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, y Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional FEDER, RTI2018-098309-B-C31) and by the SOS and TESTIMO projects (Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deportes de la Dirección General de Universidades, Investigación e Innovación de la JCCM, SBPLY/17/180501/000364 and SBPLY/17/180501/000503, respectively).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mª Ángeles Moraga .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Moraga, M.Á., de Guzmán, I.GR., García, F., Calero, C. (2021). The Importance of Software Sustainability in the CSR of Software Companies. In: Calero, C., Moraga, M.Á., Piattini, M. (eds) Software Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69970-3_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69970-3_15

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-69969-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-69970-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Navigation