Introduction to the business of sustainability: An organizing framework for theory, practice and impact

• Main Authors: GEORGE, Gerard, HAAS, Martine R., JOSHI, Havovi Heerjee, McGahan, Anita M., TRACEY, Paul
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: Sustainability; business enterprises; social impact; Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics; Strategic Management Policy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7199; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/8198/viewcontent/9781839105340_book_part_9781839105340_7_pvoa.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Human activity needs to become sustainable, and businesses have a massive role to play in it. Important progress has occurred. The Coronavirus pandemic has reinforced the importance of sustainability and resilience. Businesses have become champions of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both by integrating them into their core activities and by developing strategies and metrics to achieve them. Despite this progress, more must be done to achieve sustainability targets on a timetable that is relevant. While the narratives of businesses are often exciting, their follow-through with implementation remains limited. So too is information on successful practices, conceptual knowledge of the opportunities, and insight on the tradeoffs and challenges. This Handbook is a scholarly effort to remedy this imbalance. The Handbook on the Business of Sustainability is a compilation of chapters that together constitute a “call to action” on the business aspects of sustainable growth. It adopts a novel approach that emphasizes conceptual work to help businesses think through the critical issues. “Sustainability-in-Practice” case studies and implementation briefs complement these conceptual chapters. Our aspiration is that this Handbook can help scholars and executives reflect on the “concept and practice” of articulating, strategizing, resourcing, organizing, and implementing sustainability initiatives in business. In this chapter, we summarize the contributions in this edited volume and provide an overall framework to highlight the multiple issues that need to be considered from an organizational perspective on the business of sustainability.