The Next Phase of Business Sustainability

Giving Compass’ Take:

• As Stanford Social Innovation Review writes, businesses are now collaborating to create a sustainable market by spurring a transformative process themselves.

• This goes beyond Corporate Social Responsibility, as it speaks to a more embedded strategy within the private sector. How might funders work with leaders across sectors in this vein?

• Here’s more on growing and rethinking business trends through B Corporations.

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Business sustainability has come a long way. From the dawn of the modern environmental movement and the establishment of environmental regulations in the 1970s, it has become a strategic concern driven by market forces. Today, more than 90 percent of CEOs state that sustainability is important to their company’s success, and companies develop sustainability strategies, market sustainable products and services, create positions such as chief sustainability officer, and publish sustainability reports for consumers, investors, activists, and the public at large.

This trend will not abate anytime soon. Surveys show that 88 percent of business school students think that learning about social and environmental issues in business is a priority, and 67 percent want to incorporate environmental sustainability into their future jobs. To meet this demand, the percentage of business schools that require students to take a course dedicated to business and society increased from 34 percent in 2001 to 79 percent in 2011, and specific academic programs on business sustainability can now be found in 46 percent of the top 100 US master of business administration (MBA) programs.

Read the full article about business sustainability by Andrew J. Hoffman at Stanford Social Innovation Review.