Business strategy that focuses on sustainability as a core aspect of the business
Corporate sustainability is an approach aiming to create long-term stakeholder value through the implementation of a business strategy that focuses on the ethical, social, environmental, cultural, and economic dimensions of doing business.[1] The strategies created are intended to foster longevity, transparency, and proper employee development within business organizations.[2] Firms will often express their commitment to corporate sustainability through a statement of Corporate Sustainability Standards (CSS), which are usually policies and measures that aim to meet, or exceed, minimum regulatory requirements.[3]
Corporate sustainability is often confused with corporate social responsibility (CSR), though the two are not the same.[4][5] Bansal and DesJardine (2014) state that the notion of 'time' discriminates sustainability from CSR and other similar concepts. Whereas ethics, morality, and norms permeate CSR, sustainability only obliges businesses to make intertemporal trade-offs to safeguard intergenerational equity. Short-termism is the bane of sustainability.[6]
^Grimm, Jörg H.; Hofstetter, Joerg S.; Sarkis, Joseph (20 January 2016). "Exploring sub-suppliers' compliance with corporate sustainability standards". Journal of Cleaner Production. 112: 1971–1984. Bibcode:2016JCPro.112.1971G. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.11.036.
^Ashrafi, M.; Adams, M.; Walker, T. R.; Magnan, G. (17 November 2018). "How corporate social responsibility can be integrated into corporate sustainability: a theoretical review of their relationships". International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology. 25 (8): 672–682. Bibcode:2018IJSDW..25..672A. doi:10.1080/13504509.2018.1471628. S2CID158792026.
^Hirst, Scott (2016). "Social Responsibility Resolutions". The Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance Discussion Paper (2016–06): 8.