ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the reasons why businesses should nowadays care about environment and sustainable development issues. A balance needs to be struck between adjusting existing practices to become more sustainable and ensuring the changes make good business sense such as new-product development, new markets, resources efficiency, and reputation building. Sustainable business development can therefore be defined as doing business by taking into account the company’s economic, environmental and social impacts, risks and opportunities with the aim to reinforce its strategy and impose its competitiveness. Management support for the development and implementation of a business sustainability strategy can create significant business value. Investors are also looking for ethics and good governance. Sustainability/environmental managers can often provide the cohesion and coordination that is necessary to get a business sustainability strategy off the ground. Participants stem from global business, civil society, labor, academic, and professional institutions.
