The New Economics of the Business Case for Sustainability

Abstract

This paper joins the debate on businessO role in the implementation of sustainable development and argues that firms are beginning to run more sustainable practices as these are becoming increasingly profitable. It is also argued that such evolution of the economics of social environmental performance is the result of a three stage dynamics which involves consumer awareness, industrial policies, new cost structures and stakeholdersO pressure. Moreover, it is also considered that such a phenomenon implies that corporations can be of huge help to regulations in the implementation of sustainability. Finally, by running analyses of the relevant literature on the business case for sustainability, this paper reconciles the mixed and inconclusive results which the academic research on the economic rationale of sustainability has always produced.