Definitions, Theories, Drivers and Managerial Implications: Grounding Global Strategic Sustainability

Abstract

To define the concept of sustainability requires an in-depth understanding of what it means to be sustainable. To define the concept of strategic sustainability requires an additional understanding of the strategic nature of sustainability. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to examine and redefine the term sustainability underpinned by theories from the environmental sciences, and also by the key global sustainability drivers. The second is to reframe the term sustainability and set it in a strategic context thus providing the beginnings of a definition of ‘strategic sustainability’. The paper also considers the implications for management and marketing of a change to strategic sustainability. The paper is conceptual in nature.