Vitruvio
International 
journal of 
Architecture 
Technology and 
Sustainability
Volume 2 Is 1

VII

EDITORIAL

SUSTAINABILITY: A SOCIAL RESPONSABILITY

The dissemination of the awareness and attention 
towards a sustainable way of building in the present 
and the immediate future is one of the goals that 
the Vitruvio magazine intends to achieve through its 
articles and participations. 
In recent years, sustainability has taken on a number 
of meanings that go beyond the compliance with 
environmental protection requirement, becoming a 
real moral obligation for every individual.
For this reason, we have several protocols and basic 
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enable us to apply good practices on sustainability. In 
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have such an overwhelming logic that it is natural to 
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years ago at the beginning of European economic 
development.
Currently, the different aspects of sustainability, such 
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etc, are spread across all technological projects of any 
nature. These issues have economic implications that 
often compromise the project feasibility, becoming 
just  a merely statements of intention that will never 
be realized for lack of money, as often stated by all 
the politicians of the European states. Unfortunately, 
in more and more cases, sustainability issues are 
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collectivity and for the ccompanies, which by their 
nature make concrete things, the products.
At this point, it is reasonable to wonder whether 
companies can really contribute to the sustainable 
development of our society through targeted actions 
of social responsibility
The concept of social responsibility was introduced 
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United States when the collectivity realized that the 
companies go beyond the production of goods and 
services and they are responsible for the health and 
safety of their workers and the generation of pollution 
of their production processes as well. 

Concern for these social and environmental problems 
raises a demand for information that companies 
have to provide in a written document called Social 
Responsibility. 
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social balance sheets was drawn up  for the external 
bodies to the company, essentially consumers, which 
in the US have had a special sensitivity and attention 
for this theme.
At the beginning, the information provided by the 
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The need to use a single scheme for all companies 
that could both provide information and allow a 
comparison between their social performance dates 
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for social responsibility was experienced. In this 
period, also the term "sustainability", which includes 
both economic, environmental and social concepts, 
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“sustainable development” able to reconcile economic 
development with social and environmental issues.
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the Green Book on Promoting a European Framework 
for Corporate Social Responsibility has begun a broad 
debate on how the European Union could promote 
corporate social responsibility at European and 
international level.
The above-mentioned Green Book aims to achieve 
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European Council in 2000, that is "to become the 
country with the most competitive and dynamic 
knowledge-based economy in the world capable of 
sustainable economic growth with more and better 
jobs and greater social cohesion". 
Nowadays, a growing number of companies recognize 
their social responsibility, considering it an integral 
part of their business. However, the technological 
advancements and the current forms of cross-sectoral 
work impose the adoption of a new social responsibility 
control model able to assess the role played by 

https://doi.org/10.4995/vitruvio-ijats.2017.7650



VIII

multiple companies in a given production cycle. In 
addition, companies are transforming into complex 
manufacturing systems involving several experts in 
order to remain competitive. In this scenario, the social 
responsibility model focused on the analysis of a single 
product shows signs of fragility and obsolescence. 
Therefore, we should be looking for a new social 
responsibility assessment model that meets the current 
requirements of the production system in order to 
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Luis Palmero