The Sustainable Company: How to Create Lasting Value through Social and Environmental Performance

Corporate governance and sustainability are moving from important peripheral problems to core business concerns, as winning companies discover stakeholders as new sources of value. Yet there are many obstacles to bringing these issues into the mainstream of business. Concepts like sustainable development can be confusing for operating managers and even those who support the underlying issues find it difficult to frame them in ways that are useful for making business decisions. As a manager you have a responsibility to deliver financial returns to your shareholders: how can you balance this obligation with your responsibilities to society and the environment? This text articulates an innovative approach to meeting this challenge in a language familiar to business. The key is to create value for investors as well as society and the environment in an integrated bottom line. The book provides detailed case studies of leading companies illustrating this new paradigm in practice. The "how-to" section with a tool-kit for managers provides the "Eight Disciplines" necessary to create value for shareholders and stakeholders. Its straightforward text tells the reader how to compete and thrive in an increasingly complex world.