Clarifying the Meaning of Sustainable Business : Introducing a Typology from Business-as-Usual to True Business Sustainability
Journal
Organization & Environment
ISSN
1086-0266
ISSN-Digital
1552-7417
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2016-05-10
Author(s)
Abstract
While sustainability management is becoming more widespread among major companies, the impact of their activities do not reflect in studies monitoring the state of the planet. What results from this is a "big disconnect". With this paper, we address two main questions: "How can business make an effective contribution to addressing the sustainability challenges we are facing?" And: "When is business truly sustainable?" In a time, when more and more corporations claim to manage sustainably, we need to distinguish between those companies that contribute effectively to sustainability and those that don't. We provide an answer by clarifying the meaning of business sustainability. We review established approaches and develop a typology of business sustainability with a focus on effective contributions for sustainable development. This typology ranges from Business Sustainability 1.0 (Refined Shareholder Value Management) to Business Sustainability 2.0 (Managing for the Triple Bottom Line) and to Business Sustainability 3.0 (True Sustainability).
Language
English
Keywords
business sustainability
corporate sustainability
environmental
social and economic sustainability
triple bottom line
planetary challenges
corporate social responsibility
responsible leadership
purpose of the firm
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Sage
Publisher place
Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Volume
29
Number
2
Start page
156
End page
174
Pages
19
Subject(s)
Additional Information
Organization & Environment Best Paper Award 2016/17
Eprints ID
229344