Measuring sustainability : a holistic approach for a more sustainable future.

• Main Authors: Chia, Xing Hua., Swathi Eswaramurthi.
• Other Authors: Tan Joo Seng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::Management::Social responsibility
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/48135
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The first half of this paper is a conceptual discussion about the measurement of corporate sustainability. We begin with a discussion about the inadequacy of financial data as a predictor of a company’s future performance and the acute need for measuring corporate sustainability holistically based on the Triple Bottom Line paradigm – Planet, People, Profits (The 3 ‘P’s of sustainability). We then conceptualized the 3 core attributes which an ideal measure of sustainability should possess – Comprehensiveness, Comparability and Credibility (The 3 ‘C’s of measurement). Putting the two together, we assert that an ideal measure of corporate sustainability will holistically assess all 3’P’s of sustainability and incorporate all 3 ‘C’s of measurement. The second half of the paper critically evaluates sustainability rankings as a measure of corporate sustainability. We discovered that none of the existing corporate sustainability rankings holistically integrate the 3 ‘P’s with the 3 ‘C’s. Hence, we integrated the best of the existing rankings – Newsweek’s Green Rankings, CNN Money’s Top 100 Best Companies to Work For rankings and “Fortune’s Global 500 World’s Largest Corporations” ranking – to produce one holistic sustainability ranking. The eventual product of this research is not an ideal sustainability ranking, but the first step towards the creation of one.