The university is an institution with a strong economic, social, cultural, and political impact, and must act as a model and benchmark.It has an inherent commitment to society, which makes social responsibility, sustainability, and solidarity an essential duty, closely linked to its third mission.
Within this framework, social responsibility and sustainability have been consolidated as a strategic axis that integrates the social, economic, and environmental dimensions across all areas, with the aim of promoting a model of innovation and socially responsible, sustainable development oriented toward the common good.
From an institutional perspective,this approach has been shaped in accordance with references such as the World Declaration on Higher Education (1998), the 2015 University Strategy and other initiatives aimed at systematising and promoting social responsibility in the university field.
Currently, universities are aligning their policies with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reinforcing their role as key agents in knowledge generation, the formation of responsible citizens and social transformation. At the same time, the main international university rankings incorporate specific indicators to evaluate the institutional commitment to social responsibility, sustainability and the impact on the SDGs.
With this objective, universities have developed governance structures and specific units to promote sustainability, transparency and accountability, and to promote the integration of these principles into teaching, research and management.In this context, the chairs and initiatives in the field of social responsibility and sustainability, in collaboration with different social and economic agents, contribute to the generation of applied knowledge and the dissemination of good practices.
The Chair of Social Responsibility and Sustainability (RSS) was created at the UdG in 2013, with the impetus of Càritas Diocesana de Girona, with the aim of promoting a university structure aimed at developing courses and research that would promote the corporate social responsibility of the region's business community, in collaboration with the Empreses amb Cor initiative.From its creation, it was sponsored by Banco Santander and was actively integrated into the Santander Network of Chairs, promoting research, studies and training in social responsibility and sustainability both at national and international level.This sponsorship was maintained until
2024.
Since 2025, it has been incorporated as the patron entity of the Costa Brava
Mediterranean Foods chair, from the Cañigueral Group, a company with roots in the region and aligned with the values ​​of sustainability and social responsibility, with activity on a provincial, national and international scale. The Mediterranean constitutes a central element of its identity and its values, combining local roots and global projection with efficient, sustainable and responsible management, and with a firm commitment in the environmental, social and economic fields, in line with the SDGs.
With this alliance, the RSS Chair and Costa Brava Mediterranean Foods will promote training, dissemination, awards, transfer, research and recognition activities in the field of social responsibility and sustainability.
In this regard, the RSS Chair is conceived as an instrument to consolidate the values ​​of social responsibility and sustainability in the university context and project them within the region, promoting innovations and initiatives in the economic, social and environmental fields that contribute to sustainable development, solidarity and the improvement of the quality of the university system, as well as to the transfer of knowledge, innovation and technology at the service of social well-being.