ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the importance of embedding an ethical perspective into businesses, that is transparent, explicit and shared, and demonstrates how a values-based framework can enable organisations to embed sustainability actions in a deep and integrated manner. It illustrates how use of our values-based framework influenced business ethics across eight organizations, apparently and unexpectedly, assisting in the embedding of local ethics. The chapter argues that multiple specific impacts were found, including deep values conceptualization, increased esteem, building capacity for assessment of values-based achievements, values mainstreaming, and effective external values communications. It shows that our values-based approach holds promise for meeting key challenges identified in business ethics and wider sustainability challenges, and for new directions for future cross-disciplinary research for moving towards more integrated sustainability actions. Organizations and businesses have a central role in challenge of developing sustainable societies. A thematic analysis was carried out in order to identify predominant themes relating to longer-term potential outcomes of our values-based evaluation framework.
