Understanding positive contributions to sustainability. A systematic review

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Current approaches for measuring and assessing contributions of companies and their products to sustainability largely focus on reducing negative impacts. However, becoming “less bad” still means having adverse impacts on the environment. Various authors have therefore called for investigating how positive contributions can be made to further sustainable development. This systematic literature review explores how positive contributions to sustainability have been discussed in the environmental management literature dealing with sustainability performance measurement and assessment. Our review of 328 publications reveals an understanding of positive contributions to sustainability that is a mostly implicit or vague use. Inductive analysis, however, reveals three distinct understandings – an operationalization, a stakeholder and a transformation perspective – each of which is embedded in a different theoretical frame, namely decision, stakeholder and transition theory. These perspectives have so far been discussed separately in the literature. By drawing on theoretical foundations of performance measurement, we propose an integrated understanding of positive contributions to sustainability: A positive sustainability contribution has the goal of bringing about a sustainability transformation, considers the environmental, economic and social context through stakeholder participation, and is operationalized to facilitate decision-making and the implementation of effective sustainability measures. A clear definition is of key importance for both research and practice to both reduce negative and increase positive contributions to sustainable development.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number115802
JournalJournal of environmental management
Volume2022
Issue number320
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2022
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85135707630
Mendeley 46f325ca-c81f-37d7-b066-d20c2cf39cf0
unpaywall 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115802

Keywords

Keywords

  • Assessment, Corporate sustainability, Measurement, Performance, Sustainability accounting, Sustainability management

Library keywords