Definition of Sustainability and Its Three Pillars Which Are Important Factors of Sustainability

Executive Summary

The purpose of this report is to inform readers regarding the definition of sustainability and

its three pillars which are important factors of sustainability. The world commission defined

the sustainability as "forms of progress that meet the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future generation to meet their needs". There are three

dimensions of sustainability which are the main factors of sustainability: economic,

environmental and social dimension and they overlap each other in terms of responsibility to

achieve sustainability. In organisational context, this report mostly focuses on environment

dimension. Most organisations usually exploit natural resource without any perception of

saving the resource for the next generations. This leads to many consequences since some

natural resources are limited and unrenewable. Not only people in the next generation

adversely affected by this, but also the organisations itself because of not being sustainable

organisation result in bad reputation which damage the organisation in long run. In terms of

importance of sustainability, it obviously contributes to everyone, not only the next

generations or organisations, but everyone! Unilever and Gibson are great examples of

organisation that conducting their business to serve itself and all people. They have been

trying to save the environment as possible as they could and they also change their business

partners to become sustainable organisation as well. However, becoming organisations that

have good sustainable practises is not an easy task. The organisation needs to acknowledge

all stakeholders to understand clearly about sustainability and its importance. Eventually,

sustainability will help organisations to perform effectively/efficiently, people to live better

off, and make the world better place to live.

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 3

THE DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABILITY .............................................................................. 3

 Economic Dimension ............................................................................................................................... 4

 Environmental Dimension ......................................................................................................................... 4

 Social Dimension...................................................................................................................................... 4

SUSTAINABILITY IN ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT ..................................................... 5

THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE PRACTISES ........................................................ 5

RECOMMENDATION .................................................................................................................... 7

REFERENCE LIST .......................................................................................................................... 9

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Introduction

Increasing globalisation allows organisations to internationalise their business so operation of

organisations is not limited to domestic setting anymore. Because of this, giant organisations

try to expand the business to a foreign country, especially developing country in order to

obtain more competitive advantage by the benefit of economy of scale or economy of scope

(Harzing and Ruysseveldt 2004). However, resource exploitation in developing countries has

increased and the world is now aware of this problem since natural resource is not unlimited

and it is getting depleted. This could lead to huge problem in the future generation due to the

fact that all activities for mankind nowadays rely heavily on basic natural resources which

become less and less in number such as oil, coal and others resource (Moeckli 2007, 2).

Regarding to this problem which is considered significant threat to mankind, organisations

adapt their practises towards the problem. In contemporary business practise, sustainability

become in awareness of organisations since sustainability practise is related to CSR and it

becomes important practise which leads to sustainable success of organisations (Grant et al.

2011).

This report will discuss about the definition of sustainability and the activities of organisation

concerning with sustainability, in other words; sustainability practise, and explanation of the

reason why organisations in contemporary world are committing so much in sustainability

practise. Moreover, an example of organisation which has sustainability practise and also

constraints of such practise will be given in the report. Finally, this report will give some

recommendation for every organisation in order to help them have a more efficiency and

effectiveness of their operations.

The Definition of Sustainability

There are so many definitions of sustainability and it is complex and always