TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding Positive Contributions to Sustainability
T2 - A Systematic Review
AU - Dijkstra-Silva, Samanthi
AU - Schaltegger, Stefan
AU - Beske-Janssen, Philip
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - Current approaches for measuring and assessing contributions of companies and their products to sustainability largely focus on reducing negative impacts. However, becoming “less bad” still means having adverse impacts on the environment. Various authors have therefore called for investigating how positive contributions can be made to further sustainable development. This systematic literature review explores how positive contributions to sustainability have been discussed in the environmental management literature dealing with sustainability performance measurement and assessment. Our review of 328 publications reveals an understanding of positive contributions to sustainability that is a mostly implicit or vague use. Inductive analysis, however, reveals three distinct understandings – an operationalization, a stakeholder and a transformation perspective – each of which is embedded in a different theoretical frame, namely decision, stakeholder and transition theory. These perspectives have so far been discussed separately in the literature. By drawing on theoretical foundations of performance measurement, we propose an integrated understanding of positive contributions to sustainability: A positive sustainability contribution has the goal of bringing about a sustainability transformation, considers the environmental, economic and social context through stakeholder participation, and is operationalized to facilitate decision-making and the implementation of effective sustainability measures. A clear definition is of key importance for both research and practice to both reduce negative and increase positive contributions to sustainable development.
AB - Current approaches for measuring and assessing contributions of companies and their products to sustainability largely focus on reducing negative impacts. However, becoming “less bad” still means having adverse impacts on the environment. Various authors have therefore called for investigating how positive contributions can be made to further sustainable development. This systematic literature review explores how positive contributions to sustainability have been discussed in the environmental management literature dealing with sustainability performance measurement and assessment. Our review of 328 publications reveals an understanding of positive contributions to sustainability that is a mostly implicit or vague use. Inductive analysis, however, reveals three distinct understandings – an operationalization, a stakeholder and a transformation perspective – each of which is embedded in a different theoretical frame, namely decision, stakeholder and transition theory. These perspectives have so far been discussed separately in the literature. By drawing on theoretical foundations of performance measurement, we propose an integrated understanding of positive contributions to sustainability: A positive sustainability contribution has the goal of bringing about a sustainability transformation, considers the environmental, economic and social context through stakeholder participation, and is operationalized to facilitate decision-making and the implementation of effective sustainability measures. A clear definition is of key importance for both research and practice to both reduce negative and increase positive contributions to sustainable development.
KW - Sustainability management
KW - Sustainability accounting
KW - Measurement
KW - Assessment
KW - Performance
KW - Corporate sustainability
KW - Sustainability management
KW - Sustainability accounting
KW - Measurement
KW - Assessment
KW - Performance
KW - Corporate sustainability
U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115802
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115802
M3 - Review article
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 320
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
M1 - 115802
ER -