Corporate Sustainability Strategies

Before the year 2000, "environmental management" for a business was typically driven by the need to respond to restrictions imposed by environmental regulation. But, at the dawn of the new millennium, leading businesses began to change their concept of environmental management to look beyond simply meeting governmental dictates. These organizations began to evolve and utilize "environmental strategy" to create new ways of growing their businesses by bringing sustainability to the core of their business strategies. This seismic shift in view was accompanied by a bottom line emphasis that, in some cases, turned sustainability efforts into profit centers. Sustainability increasingly is not hidden within the silo of environmental, health, and safety departments but has become much more seamlessly integrated into the operations of corporate functional disciplines. Today, to effectively work in senior management, an executive needs to be knowledgeable not only about his or her specific business function but also how his or her business will be impacted by governmental regulations, policies, corporate sustainability initiatives, green marketing regulations, industry guidelines or 'best practices', new sustainable technologies, energy planning, environmental performance metrics, and required reporting on the environmental impact of their business unit.