What Is a Sustainable Company?

Abstract

Defining a sustainable company presents challenges due to evolving sustainability contexts, diverse theoretical perspectives, and conflicting definitions. This often results in overlooking broader, macrolevel sustainability constructs, leading to a fragmented understanding of what a sustainable company really is. To overcome these issues, this study synthesizes insights from multiple disciplines to form a holistic understanding of sustainability in business. A six-dimensional framework for defining corporate sustainability is proposed, categorized into fundamental and managerial dimensions. Five fundamental dimensions are used to characterize and outline a “sustainability continuum” in a business context with respect to sustainable development principles. A conceptual methodology is outlined to address sustainability management, defined as the sixth dimension. Using the proposed framework, company challenges to reach the sustainability goals are discussed. In particular, the developed “sustainability continuum” offers clarity to the concept of business sustainability, enabling companies to evaluate their compliance with sustainability criteria and comprehend their sustainability status.