Drivers for Sustainability in Organisations

Organisations, given their goals and contexts, will be driven by different factors in their quest to better contribute to sustainability. The drivers have been categorised as: (1) External, such as requirements of listed corporations to report on sustainability issues, national government, and stakeholder pressure; (2) Connecting, such as reputation, sustainability reports, environmental or social crises, and access to resources; and (3) Internal, such as ethics, champions, leadership, and culture. The chapter discusses existing drivers for sustainability in organisations frameworks and provides empirical examples from different types of organisations. This chapter highlights that it is important to recognise which drivers have the highest importance and influence for each type of organisation, in order to foster them and make each type of organisation more sustainable. It also shows that organisations must address sustainability in a holistic way, considering internal, connecting, and external drivers, and how they relate to each other.