Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in the Ghanaian Construction Sector: An Observational Study

This observational study examines sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices within the Ghanaian construction sector over a decade from 2015 to 2025. As the construction industry plays a vital role in Ghana’s economic growth amidst rapid urbanization, the adoption of sustainable CSR practices is increasingly recognized as essential for addressing environmental and social challenges. This study highlighted sustainable CSR practices from 30 projects, carried out by five construction companies. The methodology includes participant-observer roles and ethnographic data collection to emphasize contextual understanding of sustainable CSR practices and the reasons for integrations. Content analysis was used to analyze the primary data, and VOSviewer was used to analyze data from the Scopus database and compare it to the observed practices.

Findings indicate that the construction companies’ sustainable CSR practices focus on infrastructure development, environmental responsibility, community support, cultural preservation, and Training. The reasons for the implementation were to enhance reputation, ensure compliance, manage risk, and contribute to business resilience. This study suggested a sustainable CSR practices pyramid for the categorization of the practices to expand the understanding of sustainable CSR practices in the construction sector. Future studies on sustainable CSR should focus on developing economies by adopting an exploratory method to validate the qualitative method used.