Social Sustainability of Water and Waste Management Companies in Portugal

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals aim at balancing economic, social and environmental development. In this framework, social sustainability is key to tackle current challenges that hinder the maximization of social satisfaction. Yet, for many years, scholars have negleted the social dimension. A possible explanation may be the difficulty to measure social concepts such as well-being and prosperity. Thus, we argue that, to evaluate sectoral performance, the concept of social sustainability should be translated into metrics, by focusing on the indicators that impact on those social concepts. Consequently, time-series data from Quadros do Pessoal, PORDATA and SABI databases for the sector of Water Collection, Treatment and Distribution, Sanitation, Waste Management and Depollution, are consulted to analyze the evolution of those indicators and evaluate corporate performance concerning social sustainability in 2008–2019. In line with previous literature, we use average wages and employment as proxies for social sustainability. However, we introduce a new indicator, the average term for receipts to carry out an analysis from the stakeholders’ perspective. The results suggest that, especially as of 2017, sectoral firms appear to have reagained their momentum concerning social sustainability performance. This study provides the opportunity to uncover average sectoral trends on social sustainability and paves the way for future research exploring firms’ heterogeneity.