Managing Sustainability

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Corporate Sustainability

For many people the concept of “sustainability”—meeting the needs of this generation while safeguarding those of generations to come—is synonymous with environmental protection and stewardship. However, those working in the space focus on three main pillars: economic, environmental, and social. This is what starts to separate an effort to balance or meet all three needs with “environmentalism.”

For businesses, the term “corporate sustainability” is broken into three related but slightly different categories: environment, social, and governance (ESG)—the concept being that much of what a business does economically has to be done ethically, transparently, and with proper checks and balances in place. ...