Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts

Most companies today have some commitment to corporate social responsibility, but implementing these initiatives can be particularly challenging. While a lot has been written on ethical and strategic factors, there is still a dearth of information on the practical nuts and bolts. And whereas with most other organizational initiatives the sole objective is improved financial performance, sustainability broadens the focus to include social and environmental performance, which is much more difficult to measure.

Now updated throughout with new examples and new research, this is a complete guide to implementing and measuring the effectiveness of sustainability initiatives. It draws on Marc Epstein’s and new coauthor Adriana Rejc Buhovac’s solid academic foundation and extensive consulting work and includes best practices from dozens of companies in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Australia, and Africa. This is the ultimate how-to guide for corporate leaders, strategists, academics, sustainability consultants, and anyone else with an interest in actually putting sustainability ideas into practice and making sure they accomplish their goals.

Marc J. Epstein is a distinguished research professor of management at Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. He has been a professor at Stanford Business School, Harvard Business School, and INSEAD. He has written or cowritten nearly twenty books and a hundred papers.
Adriana Rejc Buhovac is an associate professor of management in the faculty of economics at the University of Ljubljana. She is a member of the editorial board of Advances in Management Accounting.

List of cases, figures, and tables
Foreword from the First Edition--John Elkington, SustainAbility Herman B “Dutch” Leonard, Harvard Business School
Preface
Introduction: Improving sustainability and financial performance in global corporations
Why it’s important
Managing corporate sustainability
The Corporate Sustainability Model
Background to this book
Making sustainability work: an overview of the revised book
And finally…
1--A new framework for implementing corporate sustainability
What is sustainability?
Identify your stakeholders
Be accountable
Corporate Sustainability Model Summary
2--Leadership, organizational culture, and strategy for corporate sustainability
Board commitment to sustainability
CEO commitment to sustainability
Leadership and global climate change
The role of the corporate mission and vision statements
The role of organizational culture
Developing a corporate sustainability strategy
Thinking globally
Voluntary standards and codes of conduct
Working with government regulations
Social investors and sustainability indices
Summary
3--Organizing for sustainability
The challenge for global corporations
Involve the whole organization
Information flow and a seat at the table
Outsourcing
Philanthropy and collaboration with NGOs
Summary
4--Costing, capital investments, and the integration of sustainability risks
The capital investment decision process
Capital budgeting in small and medium enterprises
Costs in the decision-making process
Costing systems
Risk assessment
Summary
5--Performance measurement, evaluation, and reward systems
Performance measurement and evaluation systems
Incentives and rewards
Strategic performance measurement systems
Shareholder value analysis
Summary
6--The foundations for measuring social, environmental, and economic impacts
The concept of value
Methodologies for measuring social, environmental, and economic impacts
Methodologies for measuring sustainability and political risks
Summary
7--Implementing a social, environmental, and economic impact measurement system
Mapping the actions that drive performance
Sustainability performance metrics
Engage with your stakeholders
Measuring reputation
Measuring risk
Measuring social, environmental, and economic impacts
Summary
8--Improving corporate processes, products, and projects for corporate sustainability
Organizational learning: the new battleground?
Improving sustainability performance
Reducing social, environmental, and economic impacts
Involve the supply chain
Internal reporting
Summary
9--External sustainability reporting and verification
Standards for sustainability reporting
Industry guidance on sustainability reporting
Let everyone know how you’re doing
External disclosure of sustainability performance measures
Verifying sustainability performance and reporting Internal sustainability audits
External sustainability audits
Summary
10--The benefits of sustainability for corporations and society
Make sustainability work
Use the Corporate Sustainability Model to improve performance
Create opportunities for innovation
A last word
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index