“Sustainability” has become part of the modern business lexicon. But what does it really mean?

In a 2010 survey of global CEOs by Accenture and the UN Global Compact, 93% of the 766 CEOs surveyed said that sustainability issues were “very important” or “important” to the future success of their businesses. In this same survey, 81% agreed or strongly agreed that “these issues are fully embedded into the strategy and operations of my company” (up from 50% in 2007).

We’re glad to see this evidence of the growing importance of sustainability issues on the global corporate agenda, and we celebrate the ambitious goals and substantial progress of many businesses. But we have to disagree that 80% of companies have fully embedded sustainability into their strategy and operations. The participants at our annual members’ workshop in London seemed to feel the same – in response to our informal pre-workshop survey, most said they “strongly disagreed” or “disagreed”.

Such a disconnect between what the CEOs think and what many others think comes from a disagreement over what sustainability means. Sustainability isn’t just about a few percentage point reductions in carbon emissions, or a selection of sustainably sourced product lines, or a supplier policy – as important as all of those are as starting points. But what is it then?