Proposing a Definition and a Framework of Organisational Sustainability: A Review of Efforts and a Survey of Approaches to Change

Abstract

Organisations (civil society, companies, and public-sector organisations (PSOs)) have been instrumental in driving sustainability. In the last five years, there has been an increasing interest in organisational sustainability, where the importance of sustainability's dimensions depends on an organisation's nature and purpose. A large body of literature on organisational sustainability has focused on companies, followed by education institutions, in particular higher education. Limited, yet increasing, attention has been directed to PSOs and other civil society organisations. Although there have been some attempts to define a sustainable organisation, there is still a need to define and establish the principles of how organisations can address and contribute to sustainability. The sustainability efforts in the different types of organisations were reviewed and then analysed in this paper by using hermeneutics. This was complemented with a survey on sustainability changes. The survey was sent to a database of 1574 contacts from different organisations. In addition, 106 anonymous links were sent out. From the total list of emails, 118 full responses were obtained, with 39 from civil society (37 from higher education and 2 NGOs), 66 corporations, and 13 PSOs. This research distils the key system elements of the efforts in each of the organisations in order to synthesise and propose a definition and a conceptual framework of organisational sustainability. These can help organisations understand where their efforts are and how they could better embed sustainability into their systems, thus contributing to the well-being of societies and the environment for this generation and future ones.

Analysing Organisational Collaboration Practices for Sustainability

“…Organisations are often categorised into private companies, civil society organisations (CSOs), and public sector organisations (PSOs) building the "three pillars of society" [33] (p. 18). These types of organisations differ in nature and purpose, but they share some similarities in regards to their sustainability system elements, e.g., operations and service provision, assessment and reporting, and interaction with stakeholders [1].…”

“…The majority of organisations in this study have experience in addressing sustainability issues and have a focus on collaboration for sustainability, underlining that organisations have recognised the importance of collaboration to advance their sustainability activities concurring with [1,22,28].…”

“…During the last decades, an increasing number of organisations have started to engage in sustainability activities to deal with environmental and social issues society is facing [1]. Handling the complexity of sustainability issues, however, often exceeds the capabilities of an individual organisation [2][3][4].…”

“…Handling the complexity of sustainability issues, however, often exceeds the capabilities of an individual organisation [2][3][4]. Collaboration for sustainability has, therefore, been recognised as a key element to solve complex sustainability problems and as one of the principles of a sustainable organisation [1,5,6].…”

“…">Organisational Collaboration for SustainabilityOrganisations are often categorised into private companies, civil society organisations (CSOs), and public sector organisations (PSOs) building the "three pillars of society" [33] (p. 18). These types of organisations differ in nature and purpose, but they share some similarities in regards to their sustainability system elements, e.g., operations and service provision, assessment and reporting, and interaction with stakeholders [1].Several scholars (e.g., [12,13,34]) have emphasised the importance of stakeholder interaction and stakeholder influence on organisational proactivity for sustainability and the implementation of sustainability initiatives, e.g., sustainability reporting and accounting, management control systems and environmental performance measurements. These tools can support organisations to address and interact with organisational stakeholders and to foster organisational change towards sustainability [14,35].…”