ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on helping managers develop an understanding of ways to identify the relevant elements of their sustainability footprint in order to develop an effective sustainability strategy. Before developing a strategy, a firm needs to assess the salience of stakeholders concerned about the various elements, the relevance of the various elements to its business, and the impact of the element for its current and future business. A firm’s sustainability footprint can be classified very broadly into environmental and social impacts. The following main categories of environmental impacts need to be considered by companies: impact of wastes on ecosystems; impact of reduced biodiversity on ecosystems; and the impacts of resource extraction on ecosystems. The social footprint may be visualized as social impacts radiating outward from the core of the firm: from employees to local communities within which the firm operates, to growers of basic materials that go into inputs to communities affected by the disposal of products after use.
