Sustainability in Business: Principles, Concepts, and Case Studies

This article discusses the principles, concepts, and case studies of sustainability in business. It covers the importance of social, economic, and political openness, corporate social responsibility, and forms of capital. It also explores the phase model of change, systems thinking, and examples of sustainability in business.

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Sustainability in Business
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Course Expectations and Introduction to the Principles of Responsible Business
I believe business sustainability is paramount and core to business continuity. There
are various principles in sustainability of a business. However, one of the best principles in
sustaining a business is having a good social economic and political openness that makes it
easy to conduct a business. some of the principles in business sustainability include;
openness, relevance, directivity and avoiding conflicts. Economic impact, environmental,
social aspects are some of the fundamentals of sustainability (Cinelli, Coles & Kirwan, 2014).
The broadest range of issues related to the activities of companies.
Other sustainability principle which has been embraced of late is the corporate social
responsibility. I believe that helping the society by giving back increases the chances of
sustainability of the business. There is a basic level - it is legislatively fixed norms. They
exist all over the world and in labor practices, and in corporate relations, and in the zone of
environmental responsibility. They must be kept without fail. In turn, CSR, based on these
laws, sets additional higher standards. Companies voluntarily take on additional obligations,
as this meets the interests of the company itself and meets the expectations of its stakeholders
(Ferguson & Souza, 2016).
I am familiar with the Social Charter of Business of 2004 and the supplemented version of
2008. It reminds me of the oath of athletes before the start of an Olympic Games. But we
know that all this is just a traditional ritual.
Charter - these are certain principles of responsible business conduct and sustainability. They
include relationships with employees, partners, consumers and sometimes the state. To
maintain an effective business, it is necessary to maintain a balance of interests, which in turn
helps to reduce risks and ensure greater business sustainability.

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Joining the charter means that the company shares its principles and expresses its intention to
follow them. Accession to the charter is a public act, which means that for the company this
is a certain reputational step (Pintér, Martinuzzi & Hall, 2018).
Sustainability and Sustainable Development Ecological Footprints
The idea of sustainability is only theoretical to many of us. However, sustainability affects us
in our daily lifestyles in the sustainability of the ecological footprints on the globe. It is acting
responsibly with the resources that the ecology accords to us and the progress towards the
sustainability of the future. The choices that we make in our daily lives greatly affect the
environment. We should sustain it. Non-observance of the principles of the charter does not
imply any punitive sanctions, but the company's reputation can be affected. In addition, it
should be borne in mind that the principles of responsible business conduct lie at the heart of
effective strategies and good management quality, which means that they correspond to the
interests of the medium- to long-term companies themselves, and not just the immediate
result (Sala, Ciuffo & Nijkamp, 2015).
The implementation of the provisions of the charter is a purely voluntary matter, at the same
time meeting the interests of companies, and, undoubtedly, influencing their reputation. It is
useful to remember that reputation, no matter how good or bad, always goes ahead of us. This
involves both risks and opportunities. In the modern world it is impossible to work in a
closed mode. It is important to inform stakeholders how much you are doing your business,
what your strategy is, how you achieve the implementation of this strategy, what your results
are, how it affects society and the environment. It is clear that these impacts can be either
positive or not. In this case, it is important how you control the negative impacts, how to
reduce the level of undesirable consequences (Santoyo & Azapagic, 2014).
Today, the requirements of information openness are one of the main conditions for the
company's competitiveness. Be open or you will be preferred to someone else whose

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activities are more transparent, who is more understandable and predictable. These trends are
increasing all over the world, for companies this is also relevant. Such is the soft power of
coercion.
Sustainability Concepts- Forms of Capital, Phase Model of Change and Systems
thinking
Forms of capital- there are five types of capital where we derive our goods and services from
to improve sustainability and the quality of life. They include;
Natural capital- where a sustainable flow of material and energy produces goods and services.
Human capital-it includes people and their health, skills, motivation and knowledge in
driving
Social capital- it includes the relationships that we build such as communities, unions,
partnerships, friends and families.
Financial capital- arguably one of the most important form of capital which involves the
financial resources pulled together to enable a sustainable economy thriving.
Manufactured capital- comprises of fixed assets and goods that contribute to the production
process.
Phase model of change
Contains three phases in the model; freezing, unfreezing, changing and refreezing. The
"Responsibility and Openness" index assesses the situation of disclosure of information in
key areas of activity, analyzes 70 indicators characterizing responsible business practices,
including economic, environmental, social performance indicators and aspects of corporate
governance. "Vector of sustainable development" is an index of performance dynamics,

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which makes it possible to identify Ideas among the largest companies, the best in terms of
openness and at the same time demonstrating a generally positive dynamics towards the
sustainability of development. This means that the economic indicators of the companies
leading in the indexes were also high (Schaltegger & Lüdeke-Freund, 2016).. By the way,
from this year the RSPP indexes are included in the international rating and sustainability
index base, which is used by many analysts. In the long term, we plan to expand the index
line by including industry and thematic indexes (for example, the index of social investments)
.Individual indexes get some kind of material encouragement? No, but they get good support
for what are noted as leaders in the result of independent evaluation. Today, publicity,
openness and good reputation are a significant intangible asset contributing to the growth of
the company's value.
Systems thinking
It is putting systems and making reliable inferences about behavior and creating systems that
help in business sustainability. The answer to this question requires a certain philosophical
acceptance of the fact that different stakeholders (or synonyms - interested parties) see the
world in their own right and have the full right to do this: for a company employee, social
responsibility is a worthy pay, a guarantee of high labor standards, and for local communities
- this is the company's investment in the development of regions of presence, etc., there can
be many examples, according to a wide range of stakeholders, and this is only on the one
hand (Sidiropoulos, 2014).
Sustainability- Examples and Case Studies
On the other hand, one must also understand the fact that social responsibility of business is
considered at various conceptual levels: it can be an instrument in the hands of business to
achieve and achieve sustainable development goals, or a concept in the hands of the

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government, for example the EU, to determine the role and place of business in society, or
the view of a sociologist who views the GSS as a kind of social institution used to achieve
social homeostasis, etc.Many aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are closely
related to the company's business reputation - the main factor that determines the value of a
trademark. Accordingly, brand protection and business reputation development require
companies to be attentive to stakeholders and issues of interest to them.
An increasing number of investors prefer to invest in organizations that demonstrate a high
level of social responsibility to find a measurable coordinate system for assessing business
performance that takes into account ethical compliance, social activities, environmental
impact, and shows stakeholders the specific actions of the company.
In the UK, the Corporate Responsibility Index is compiled by the Business in the Community
on the basis of voluntary participation and with the support of 150 companies, more than half
of which are included in the FTSE 100 index (Tollin, Christensen & Wilke, 2015). The
Business in the Community members are 700 companies, and another 1,600 participate in it
programs. The movement determined its goal to help attract companies to constantly improve
the influence on society and create appropriate incentives.

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Reference list
Cinelli, M., Coles, S. R., & Kirwan, K. (2014). Analysis of the potentials of multi criteria
decision analysis methods to conduct sustainability assessment. Ecological
Indicators, 46, 138-148.
Ferguson, M. E., & Souza, G. C. (Eds.). (2016). Closed-loop supply chains: new
developments to improve the sustainability of business practices. CRC Press.
Pintér, L., Hardi, P., Martinuzzi, A., & Hall, J. (2018). Bellagio STAMP: Principles for
sustainability assessment and measurement. In Routledge Handbook of Sustainability
Indicators (pp. 51-71). Routledge.
Sala, S., Ciuffo, B., & Nijkamp, P. (2015). A systemic framework for sustainability
assessment. Ecological Economics, 119, 314-325.
Santoyo-Castelazo, E., & Azapagic, A. (2014). Sustainability assessment of energy systems:
integrating environmental, economic and social aspects. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 80, 119-138.
Schaltegger, S., Hansen, E. G., & Lüdeke-Freund, F. (2016). Business models for
sustainability: Origins, present research, and future avenues.
Sidiropoulos, E. (2014). Education for sustainability in business education programs: a
question of value. Journal of cleaner production, 85, 472-487.
Tollin, K., Christensen, L. B., & Wilke, R. (2015). Sustainability in business from a
marketing perspective. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 23(6), 471-496.

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