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Understanding positive contributions to sustainability. A systematic review.
Samanthi Dijkstra-Silva1, Stefan Schaltegger2, Philip Beske-Janssen3
1Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany; Hans Carl von Carlowitz Junior Professorship for Sustainability Assessment and Policy, TU Dresden, Germany.
Journal of Environmental Management
|August 11, 2022
Summary
Companies must move beyond reducing harm to actively creating positive environmental impact. This review identifies three perspectives on positive sustainability contributions, proposing an integrated definition for research and practice.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Management
- Sustainability Science
- Business Strategy
Background:
- Current sustainability assessments primarily focus on minimizing negative environmental impacts, often termed 'less bad'.
- There is a growing academic call to explore and measure positive contributions to sustainable development.
- Existing literature lacks a clear, unified understanding of what constitutes a positive sustainability contribution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and analyze how positive contributions to sustainability are conceptualized in environmental management literature.
- To identify distinct perspectives on positive sustainability contributions and their theoretical underpinnings.
- To propose an integrated definition of positive sustainability contributions for research and practice.
Main Methods:
- Systematic literature review of 328 publications in environmental management focusing on sustainability performance measurement.
- Inductive analysis to identify different understandings and theoretical frames of positive contributions.
- Synthesis of findings based on theoretical foundations of performance measurement.
Main Results:
- The concept of positive sustainability contributions is often implicitly or vaguely used in current literature.
- Three distinct perspectives on positive contributions were identified: operationalization, stakeholder, and transformation.
- Each perspective is linked to different theoretical frameworks: decision theory, stakeholder theory, and transition theory.
Conclusions:
- An integrated understanding of positive sustainability contributions is proposed, aiming for sustainability transformation.
- This integrated view incorporates environmental, economic, and social contexts via stakeholder participation and operationalizes decision-making.
- A clear definition is crucial for advancing both research and practice in reducing negative and increasing positive sustainability impacts.
Keywords:
AssessmentCorporate sustainabilityMeasurementPerformanceSustainability accountingSustainability managementMore Related Videos
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