Corporate sustainability

About: Corporate sustainability is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3517 publications have been published within this topic receiving 94075 citations.

Clarifying the Meaning of Sustainable Business: Introducing a Typology From Business-as-Usual to True Business Sustainability

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).

Corporate Sustainability: First Evidence on Materiality

Abstract: Using newly-available materiality classifications of sustainability topics, we develop a novel dataset by hand-mapping sustainability investments classified as material for each industry into firm-specific sustainability ratings. This allows us to present new evidence on the value implications of sustainability investments. Using both calendar-time portfolio stock return regressions and firm-level panel regressions we find that firms with good ratings on material sustainability issues significantly outperform firms with poor ratings on these issues. In contrast, firms with good ratings on immaterial sustainability issues do not significantly outperform firms with poor ratings on the same issues. These results are confirmed when we analyze future changes in accounting performance. The results have implications for asset managers who have committed to the integration of sustainability factors in their capital allocation decisions.

Sustainable Value Added - Measuring Corporate Contributions to Sustainability Beyond Eco-Efficiency

Abstract: This paper proposes a new approach to measure corporate contributions to sustainability called Sustainable Value Added. Value is created whenever benefits exceed costs. Current approaches to measure corporate sustainable performance take into account external costs caused by environmental and social damage or focus on the ratio between value creation and resource consumption. As this paper will show, it is more promising to develop sustainable measures based on opportunity costs. Sustainable Value Added is such a measure. It shows how much more value is created because a company is more efficient than a benchmark and because the resources are allocated to the company and not to benchmark companies. The concept of strong sustainability requires that each form of capital is kept constant. As Sustainable Value Added is inspired by strong sustainability, it measures whether a company creates extra value while ensuring that every environmental and social impact is in total constant. Therefore, it takes into account both, corporate eco- and social efficiency as well as the absolute level of environmental and social resource consumption (eco- and social effectiveness). As a result, Sustainable Value Added considers simultaneously economic, environmental and social aspects. The overall result can be expressed in any of the three dimensions of sustainability.

Trade-offs in corporate sustainability: you can't have your cake and eat it

Abstract: The mainstream of the literature on corporate sustainability follows the win-win paradigm, according to which economic, environmental and social sustainability aspects can be achieved simultaneously; indeed, corporate sustainability has often been defined by the intersection of these three areas. However, given the multi-faceted and complex nature of sustainable development, we argue that trade-offs and conflicts in corporate sustainability are the rule rather than the exception. Turning a blind eye to trade-offs thus results in a limited perspective on corporate contributions to sustainable development. In order to overcome this situation, we propose an initial framework for the analysis of trade-offs in corporate sustainability. By doing so, we pursue two aims. First, the framework serves as a starting point for a more systematic analysis of trade-offs in corporate sustainability, as it identifies different levels and dimensions to characterize such trade-offs. Second, it serves to contextualize the contributions to this special issue on trade-offs in corporate sustainability. Based on the framework, we finally point to some promising avenues for future research on trade-offs in, and a more inclusive notion of, corporate sustainability.

A Holistic Perspective on Corporate Sustainability Drivers

Abstract: Since company boards are increasingly discussing 'sustainability', it becomes necessary to examine the nature of sustainability drivers. Most approaches to corporate sustainability drivers have focused either on internal or external drivers. This paper is aimed at providing a more holistic perspective on the different corporate sustainability drivers in order to better catalyse change from the unsustainable status quo to a more sustainable-oriented state. Empirical data was collected from experts and company leaders. The findings show that, internally, leadership and the business case are the most important drivers, whilst the most important external drivers are reputation, customer demands and expectations, and regulation and legislation. The paper proposes a corporate sustainability driver model, which considers both internal and external drivers, and complements these with drivers that connect them. This offers a holistic perspective on how companies can be more proactive in their journey to becoming more sustainability orientated.