Overview:
Major developments over the past two decades have given special attention to the concept of “sustainability,” and the integral role of occupational health, safety and wellbeing (HSW) in sustainable economic growth. For enterprises, sustainability refers to the potential for maintenance of business success over the long term, while for workers sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of wellbeing, the two conditions being inextricably connected.
There is increasing evidence which clearly indicates, on the one hand, the economic threat posed by hazardous working conditions and on the other hand, of the mounting evidence of superior market performance of enterprises which nurture a culture of HSW and incorporate social concerns in their sustainability efforts. Sustainable work and HSW are therefore integral to organizational and economic sustainability.
Major initiatives in the area of sustainable development, such as the sustainable development goals (SDGs) which set the global sustainability agenda until 2030, for the first time explicitly refer to full and productive employment and decent work for all as a means of achieving sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and include goals relating to protecting labour rights and promoting safe and secure working environments of all workers, including migrant workers, particularly women migrants, and those in precarious employment (UN, 2015).
While recent ‘integrative’ initiatives to promote good practice in HSW, such as the WHO Global Framework for Healthy Workplaces, the NIOSH Total Worker HealthTM Approach, CCPS ‘Vision 2020’, and the ISSA Vision Zero campaign highlight the importance of business responsibility and sustainability, there are however a number of gaps in research and practice which have led to limited diffusion of such approaches, which link sustainability, business responsibility and HSW, both at the organizational and policy level.
The topics of this special issue include but are not limited to studies on safety, health and wellbeing and business responsibility (including business ethics, corporate governance, compliance, CSR, etc.); integrated health and safety management and sustainability, sustainability reporting and HSW; studies on stakeholder management and social dialogue, role of new stakeholders; studies on ethical dilemmas and HSW; studies on the impact of new technologies, products, services on HSW and society; and HSW and sustainability through the supply chain.
Submission Guidelines
The length of submitted papers must range between 6,000 and 10,000 words. Submitted papers must be unpublished and not currently under review by other journals. Papers using previously published conference papers should not exceed 30% similarity. Authors can send any queries or expressions of interest to the guest editors. Full papers should be submitted directly via the Editorial Manager (EM) online submission system by 30 September 2021 at the latest. For guidelines to prepare your manuscript and for manuscript submission, please visit https://www.journals.elsevier.com/safety-science/. When submitting your manuscript, please choose “SI: Sustainability and HSW” for “Article Type”. This is to ensure that your submission will be considered for this special issue instead of being handled as a regular paper.
Editorial team
For any enquiries please contact the editorial team:
Editor in Chief of the Journal at: George Boustras [email protected]]
