ABSTRACT
The ethical dimension is central to doing business in a way which is consistent with sustainable development. Here it is argued that social and environmental issues are a subset of business ethics and that by considering the structures and procedures which define the ethics of a company we ought to be able to say something about the prospects and preconditions for improvement. Traditionally, business ethics were often seen as a topic which was of little concern to the day-today operations of business, where the emphasis was often on maximizing profits without being overtly antisocial. In the 1990s in Western economies and some developing countries a range of stakeholders began to demand greater accountability on the part of business and, more specifically, called for businesses to act in more honest, open and transparent ways.
