Understanding Business Sustainability:The What, the Why, and the How of Sustainable Business Practices

In the past three centuries human progress and development have been remarkable such that even the poorest and the least developed countries have realized substantial improvements in living standards, health care and access to education. However, these developments have come with minimum regard to social evolution and environmental protection. In the long run such form of development is unsustainable. The private sector is a key stakeholder having significant impact on the sustainability effort. This paper consists of three sections. The first section examines the concept of sustainable practices - its origin, definition and taxonomy. The second section explains ‘why’ the focus on sustainable business practices. The final section explores ‘how’ sustainability can be practiced by businesses. It provides a comparison of the various frameworks, guidelines, standards and tools by asking twelve questions. The aim of this paper is to make a case for sustainable business practices.