Developing a sustainability implementation framework: insights from academic research on tools, initiatives and approaches

Abstract

Sustainability has been proposed to address societal challenges. A number of efforts have been undertaken to implement sustainability, particularly through frameworks such as tools, initiatives and approaches (TIAs). Most of the research on the implementation efforts has been in the corporate context. This paper is aimed at analysing the implementation of TIAs in academic research. A bibliometric analysis of twenty TIAs during the period 1961–2020 was carried out to analyse their implementation in academic research. The results highlight that there has been research published on all the TIAs analysed. The TIAs have a better balance and interrelations between the sustainability dimensions in their implementation than in the theory. The results show that for a better implementation of TIAs in academic research it is necessary to address sustainability dimensions (economic, environmental, social, and time) in a holistic and balanced way considering alignment of general and specific efforts, i.e. TIAs, and congruence (linking ‘theory’ and ‘implementation’). The results were integrated to propose a ‘Sustainability Implementation Framework’ (SIF), which is divided into three levels (i.e., Initiatives, Approaches, and Tools). The TIAs implementation should follow more strictly the definitions, or, perhaps, the TIAs definitions should be redefined to encompass the insights from their implementation.

Analysing organisations' engagement with and impacts to sustainability

“…These results complement the literature on efforts to contribute to sustainability (see Bautista‐Puig et al, 2022; Lozano, 2022; van Zanten & van Tulder, 2021).…”

“…Engagement efforts, i.e., those focussing inside the organisation, include sustainable consumption and industrial practices (Batista & de Francisco, 2018); the use of tools, initiatives and approaches for sustainability (Bautista-Puig et al, 2022;Lozano, 2020;Robèrt et al, 2002); organisational culture within the context of corporate sustainability (Linnenluecke et al, 2009;Linnenluecke & Griffiths, 2010); change management for sustainability (Lozano, 2013(Lozano, , 2015Lozano & Barreiro-Gen, 2021b); relationships between assessment and reporting and organisational change management (Ceulemans et al, 2015;Domingues et al, 2017;Lozano et al, 2016); and engagement with Environmental Management Systems (Ammenberg & Hjelm, 2003;Singh & Rustagi, 2012).…”

“…Research on sustainable organisations can be divided into: (1) engagement efforts, i.e., those focussing inside the organisation (see Lozano, 2012; Lozano & Barreiro‐Gen, 2021b; Lozano & Garcia, 2020; Rodríguez‐Olalla & Avilés‐Palacios, 2017); and, (2) efforts to contribute to sustainability, i.e., focussing outside of the organisation (see Bautista‐Puig et al, 2022; Lozano, 2022; van Zanten & van Tulder, 2021). In many cases, research on efforts to contribute to sustainability has focussed on the organisation as a whole, i.e., as a ‘black‐box’ (Linnenluecke et al, 2009; Lozano, 2013).…”

“…(2) efforts to contribute to sustainability, i.e., focussing outside of the organisation (see Bautista-Puig et al, 2022;Lozano, 2022;van Zanten & van Tulder, 2021). In many cases, research on efforts to contribute to sustainability has focussed on the organisation as a whole, i.e., as a 'black-box' (Linnenluecke et al, 2009;Lozano, 2013).…”