week 1
Chapter 7: Corporate sustainability management – Schaltegger et al.
When did companies start to deal explicitly with sustainability? A brief history of sustainabiltiy
management.
- Roots go way back; overcoming social and environemntal problems.
- Environmental management promoted in ‘70s due to oil crisis.
- Environmental improvement could go along with cost reduction.
- Main reasons for dealing with sustainabilty are to secure legitimacy an dto imporbe internal
organization of the company.
- Overall; corporate management is motivated by reasons; intrinsic, personal, social
acceptance, recusting risk and cost, strive for market succes.
3 What do sustainability-oriented companies do differently? Conceptualizing sustainability
management.
- Sustainability maangement has been infromaed by the vision of integrating environmental,
social and economic perspectives into corporate management.
→ Sustainability triangle.
- The effectiveness is measures in absolute terms and efficiency relative
- Eco efficiency: the realtive proportions of an economic measure (monetary) and a physical
(Ecological) measure; ratio of value added to environmental impact added per unit.
- Socio-efficiency: economic value added relative to social measures .
- Eco-justice: the ratio between environmental and social objectives or indicators.
- Sustainability management can therefore also be seen as the art of overcoming trade-offs
between social, environmental, and economic perspectives and the search for ways to
integrate improvements in all dimensions
4 Collaboration as key to advance sustainability management.
- Requires interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary efforts; collaborations
4.1 Collaboration within the firm; integrative approach to sustainability
- Collaboration between different areas within the firm
4.2 Collaboration with value chain partners and other societal actors.
- When company has sustainability strategy, it can leverage results by engagin with partners
along the value chain.
4.3 Towards transdisciplinary collaboration
- Various secors and disciplines work together on solutions is needed.
Conclusions
- Sustainability is one of the largest, if not the largest, challenge to today’s industry and
economies. If sustainability challenges are not suffi ciently addressed in the near future,
existing economic practices, as well as societal well-being, will become increasingly
constrained. Sustainability management is a concept which has developed over the last two
decades to support companies in overcoming trade-offs between economic, environmental,
1
, and social interests. To make sustainability management successful in corporations,
collaboration is key, not only within the organization but, in a transdisciplinary sense, also
across organizations, sectors, and disciplines.
The path to corporate responsibility – Simon Zadek
Beyond getting their own houses in order, companies need to stay abreast of the piblics evolving
idead about corporate roles and repsonsibilties.
Organizational learning
- Companies go through 5 stages
The civil-learning tool
- Intended to helpcompanies see where they and their competitors fall on a societal issue .
- New issues, companies can ignore but later not anymore. → Where the line is for a company
depends on different factors.
2
, 3
Chapter 7: Corporate sustainability management – Schaltegger et al.
When did companies start to deal explicitly with sustainability? A brief history of sustainabiltiy
management.
- Roots go way back; overcoming social and environemntal problems.
- Environmental management promoted in ‘70s due to oil crisis.
- Environmental improvement could go along with cost reduction.
- Main reasons for dealing with sustainabilty are to secure legitimacy an dto imporbe internal
organization of the company.
- Overall; corporate management is motivated by reasons; intrinsic, personal, social
acceptance, recusting risk and cost, strive for market succes.
3 What do sustainability-oriented companies do differently? Conceptualizing sustainability
management.
- Sustainability maangement has been infromaed by the vision of integrating environmental,
social and economic perspectives into corporate management.
→ Sustainability triangle.
- The effectiveness is measures in absolute terms and efficiency relative
- Eco efficiency: the realtive proportions of an economic measure (monetary) and a physical
(Ecological) measure; ratio of value added to environmental impact added per unit.
- Socio-efficiency: economic value added relative to social measures .
- Eco-justice: the ratio between environmental and social objectives or indicators.
- Sustainability management can therefore also be seen as the art of overcoming trade-offs
between social, environmental, and economic perspectives and the search for ways to
integrate improvements in all dimensions
4 Collaboration as key to advance sustainability management.
- Requires interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary efforts; collaborations
4.1 Collaboration within the firm; integrative approach to sustainability
- Collaboration between different areas within the firm
4.2 Collaboration with value chain partners and other societal actors.
- When company has sustainability strategy, it can leverage results by engagin with partners
along the value chain.
4.3 Towards transdisciplinary collaboration
- Various secors and disciplines work together on solutions is needed.
Conclusions
- Sustainability is one of the largest, if not the largest, challenge to today’s industry and
economies. If sustainability challenges are not suffi ciently addressed in the near future,
existing economic practices, as well as societal well-being, will become increasingly
constrained. Sustainability management is a concept which has developed over the last two
decades to support companies in overcoming trade-offs between economic, environmental,
1
, and social interests. To make sustainability management successful in corporations,
collaboration is key, not only within the organization but, in a transdisciplinary sense, also
across organizations, sectors, and disciplines.
The path to corporate responsibility – Simon Zadek
Beyond getting their own houses in order, companies need to stay abreast of the piblics evolving
idead about corporate roles and repsonsibilties.
Organizational learning
- Companies go through 5 stages
The civil-learning tool
- Intended to helpcompanies see where they and their competitors fall on a societal issue .
- New issues, companies can ignore but later not anymore. → Where the line is for a company
depends on different factors.
2
, 3
