ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a framework for mobilizing an organization around sustainability. It looks at the gloom and detail positive sustainability-related changes taking place on the edges of the corporate world. Short-term financial targets and the bonuses in pay they determine do more to undermine employees’ willingness to do business sustainably than any other fact of corporate life. This mismatch between the time-horizon needed for sustainability initiatives and the time-horizon for financial returns demanded by investors is a grave problem for executives. Sustainability champions must overcome a significant hurdle. They must demonstrate the long-term value of sustainability to stakeholders who mainly still think short-term. Globalization and technological advance have made change and the need to adapt to it a constant in any organization. Change-management initiatives are usually driven by external factors that are a drag on internal performance. They have over the past generation usually been aimed at short-term goals such as increasing profitability and shareholder value.
