Corporate Sustainability

Corporate Sustainability is a business approach that creates long-term consumer and employee value by not only creating a "green" strategy aimed towards the natural environment, but taking into consideration every dimension of how a business operates in the social, cultural, and economic environment. Also formulating strategies to build a company that fosters longevity through transparency and proper employee development.

Corporate sustainability is an evolution on more traditional phrases describing ethical corporate practice. Phrases such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate citizenship continue to be used but are increasingly superseded by the broader term, corporate sustainability. Unlike the other phrases that focus on "added-on" policies, corporate sustainability describes business practices built around social and environmental considerations.

The phrase is derived from two keys sources. The Brundtland Commission's Report – Our Common Future which described sustainable development as, "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". This desire to grow without damaging future generations' prospects is becoming more and more central to business philosophies.

Within more academic management circles Elkington (1999) developed the concept of the Triple Bottom Line which proposed that business goals were inseparable from the societies and environments within which they operate. Whilst short-term economic gain could be chased, a failure to account for social and environmental impacts would make those business practices unsustainable.