Publication Type

Book Chapter

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

2-2022

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Sustainability, business enterprises, social impact

Discipline

Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics | Strategic Management Policy

Research Areas

Strategy and Organisation

Publication

Handbook on the business of sustainability: The organization, implementation, and practice of sustainable growth

Editor

Gerard George, Martine R. Haas, Havovi Joshi, Anita McGahan, & Paul Tracey

First Page

2

Last Page

22

ISBN

9781839105340

Identifier

10.4337/9781839105340.00007

Publisher

Edward Elgar

City or Country

Cheltenham

Copyright Owner and License

Publisher

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839105340.00007

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