Environmental CSR in Industrial Cities: A Collaborative Governance Approach

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives based on charity and philanthropy have not alleviated many sustainable environmental issues, particularly in industrial towns. The collaborative governance strategy is seen to be an option for resolving difficulties of coordination and communication between businesses, the government, and the community so that the goals of urban environmental management can be met via collaborative efforts. The purpose of this research is to identify the different forms of environmental CSR implementation by corporate entities and to create a CSR collaborative governance model in environmental management. This qualitative investigation was carried out in 2020 in Cilegon City, one of Indonesia’s industrial cities. To investigate their support, a total of 20 informants from three stakeholder groups, namely the government, corporate entities, and the community, were questioned. According to the study’s findings, CSR implementation in the environmental sector covers cleaner production, eco-office, energy and natural resource conservation, waste management, renewable energy, climate change adaptation, and environmental education. CSR implementation in the environmental potential to implement collaborative governance. Business entities have an essential role in establishing the starting condition, while the government provides facilitative leadership and the CSR forum launches institutional design. These three elements are critical to the effectiveness of collaborative governance in environmental management in industrial cities.