Transitioning towards sustainability: The ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the integration of sustainable practices into business models
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Abstract
In today’s business ecosystem, sustainability is increasingly becoming a vital element to firms’ long-term prosperity. Sustainable considerations have evolved to turn a key element that firms wish to integrate into their business models. This new scenario has left countless companies struggling to adapt to these new times. The integration of sustainable practices is not an easy task. The complex web of stakeholders and interactions between participating actors complicate the identification of mechanisms that foster sustainability. Consequently, this paper explores what is the state-of-the-art of the integration of sustainable practices, including an analysis of why these practices are implemented and how their integration is ultimately effective. Results show that there is a wide variety of research, predominantly focused on the creation of frameworks and brainstorming tools to help companies integrate sustainable practices. Regarding what is the trigger of these sustainable initiatives, existing research expresses that sustainable integration is mainly triggered to fit new upcoming demands of legislation and society. Finally, about how these sustainable practices are integrated, strategies are applied across the entire value chain, on both products and processes. Regarding the relationship between the integration of sustainable practices and economic results, no tendency for a direct correlation was found.
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