Business Sustainability - A Study of Most Sustainable Corporations

Abstract

‘G100’ is the list of most sustainable 100 corporations out of thousands of global leading corporations. G100 corporations are acknowledged every year during the world economic forum. The focus of the study is to identify the key factors which support these corporations to get listed in G100 and to check the relationship of these factors with superior sustainability performance. Literature review enabled us to understand the different motives and factors influencing the drive of sustainability. These are categorized as operational and strategic drivers based on their nature. Multiple regression analysis carried out to check the correlation between the Sustainability drivers and, the repeat performance in G100 by these corporations.

Findings helped us conclude that Sustainability initiatives have a motive of an operational benefit and it is also considered as a strategic driver by adding social and environmental dimension in the core purpose of the organization. A positive correlation is confirmed between corporations adopting sustainability as a strategic driver and their performance in G100. Year on year continual improvement is observed in the average scores of G100 corporations and it confirms the contribution of global sustainability indices in helping overall sustainable development.

Proposed model adoption may help corporations to drive their sustainability programs and as a result, perform better in G100 with consistency. This study provides insights into sustainability champions and business leaders to understand the role of sustainability drivers. Business leaders can achieve superior sustainability performance in global sustainability indices using the findings of this study. It will also ensure the good governance of sustainability initiatives.