Are Brazilian Companies Socially Sustainable? An Analysis of The Initiatives on Brazilian Companies’ Sustainability Reports

Abstract

This article presents a survey about social sustainability initiatives adopted by companies that compose the Ibovespa index, using their sustainability reports published from 2012 to 2016 as research sources. The research aims to carry out a critical analysis of the state of the art of social sustainability management in the Brazilian corporate context. The methodology adopted for the gathering and organization of data was grounded theory. The authors observed positive correlations between the adoption of social sustainability initiatives and the number of employees, market capitalization, and corporate reputation. It was also observed that, on sustainability reports, the concept of sustainability is understood in a way that privileges the environmental dimension to the detriment of the social aspect, exceptions made for social investments. Finally, it was noted that diversity initiatives have been comparatively neglected in comparison to other categories of initiatives.