ABSTRACT
Embedded sustainability is the incorporation of environmental, health, and social value into the company's core business with no trade-off in price or quality. The Erste Group Bank is an example of embedded sustainability leading to entirely new market opportunities based on "doing good" – a particular kind of Blue Ocean Strategy. Bolt-on sustainability and embedded sustainability are two strikingly different approaches to managing social and environmental pressures in pursuit of value creation. The embedded sustainability framework – which we name the ES Cloud – is offered in this spirit. A key goal of the ES Cloud is to help managers think about what embedded sustainability means for their business. Embedded sustainability is a new response to a new business reality. Companies can strengthen existing strategies with only incremental changes in sustainability performance. Many companies "bolt on" sustainability like an afterthought to their core strategies, despite their best intentions.
