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Introduction
"Sustainability" has come to have many different meanings. It's the latest buzzword among business, government, and nonprofit entities. Business leaders must be wondering if it's just the latest management fad or a concept that will fundamentally change how businesses are managed and measured. This paper is based on the notion that sustainability is more than a fad, but rather is creating a permanent shift in the very nature of business. Since the advent of the paradigm of sustainable development in the 1980s, the private sector has been shifting from a narrow economic conception of responsibility toward a comprehensive approach that attempts to balance economic objectives with environmental pressures and changing societal expectations (Robinson, 2000).
The Brundtland Commission (World Commission on Environment and Development, United Nations, 1987) is generally credited with introducing "sustainability" in their report, Our Common Future. The report states that "Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable - to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." Thus the term was coined originally in reference to sustainable development, and the purpose was to encourage development with a dual focus on reducing poverty and taking into consideration long-term ecological effects. Critics have written that the term is an oxymoron, an illusion, or both (Livingston, 1994; Sachs, 1999). The concept has expanded since 1987 and now has a focus on economic profits, social impact, and the environment. The term triple bottom line, or TBL, was coined for this tertiary focus by Elkington (1998) in his book, Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Elkington also refers to the triple bottom line as the three P's: "people, profits, and planet."
For this study, the author likes the definition set forth by Dow Jones (www.sustainabilityindexes.com): "A business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental, and social developments." The literature on sustainability is expansive. A Google search in February 2009, on the term turned up 28,100,000 entries. A search on "sustainable" leadership turned up 13,700,000, and within Google Scholar, 230,000 entries. The literature includes numerous studies on evaluation and reporting concepts, which will be expanded upon later in this report, and...