In simple terms, corporate sustainability is about

1. doing business better

• Economically – saving money through best use of people, materials and energy, maintaining growth by identifying and meeting emerging demands in the marketplace
  
• Environmentally – reducing damage to the environment through improvements in efficiency, use of new materials and new technologies with less environmental impacts
  
• Socially – making the workplace cleaner, safer and healthier for the employees; encouraging staff development, rewarding contribution and productivity
  
• Visibly – increasing value, offering products and services that are more environmentally friendly, and better suited to the customers
  

2. working with others

• Talking to stakeholders – exchanging ideas with employees, management, customers, owners, regulators, and the wider community
  
• Understanding customer needs – developing new business opportunities to match the interests and expectations of a changing customer population
  
• Building good relationship – to enhance the company’s reputation and image and to maintain goodwill in the community
  
• Future-proofing – minimizing corporate risk by anticipating and meeting challenges before they affect profits; reducing reliance on increasingly scarce resources; striving to achieve best practice through continual improvement
  

3. of course, staying in business for the long term

• Community welfare – earning customer and employee loyalty through being a good corporate citizen – businesses cannot succeed in communities that fail
  
• Recycling – changing equipment and procedures to enhance re-use of existing materials and infrastructure, reducing the need for waste treatment and disposal; creating jobs and revenue streams through the sale of re-usable and recyclable materials and products