An exploration of strategic sustainability business initiatives

The perspective of the business sector is crucial in advancing efforts for the sustainability of socialecological systems. This paper reports an exploration performed around sustainability related business initiatives. The point of departure is a literature review where sustainability is portrayed as a business mega-trend. Interestingly, out of a series of semi-structured interviews, the response from the business sector appears to be mainly through reactive initiatives. Furthermore, the business sector is struggling to develop business models where the value, generated by sustainability initiatives, can be tangibly evaluated and appropriated today. Among other aspects to be advanced, there is a need for evaluation instruments which provide guiding information for individual business action, where future performance and capacity to create value are bridged with present sustainability initiatives. With this in mind an exploration of sustainability performance as an element that could contribute with providing useful information to evaluate business initiatives was advanced in the discussion section of this paper. Word Count : 16 168 Words.