Leadership and the Corporate Sustainability Challenge: Mindsets in Action

Abstract

With the goal of examining sustainability through a new lens and uncovering how business organizations are reconciling their role in the world today and into the future -- and what it will take to realize that future -- Avastone Consulting conducted the Avastone Corporate Sustainability Study (ACSS). The ACSS draws on investigations with ten prominent corporations, each with substantial sustainability experience and varying degrees of achievement.

The study report charts progress of the ten companies across five stages or gears, with the most advanced stage (5th Gear) extending further than other models. The 5th Gear vision and activity required -- and the current chasm in organizations' attention to 5th Gear -- is a significant finding important to the future of sustainability.

The report also explores the untapped realm of leader mindsets, including the nature of their development and the correlation between leader mindsets and realization of complex sustainability goals. It synthesizes the information from the ACSS and related research to discern what is required for organizations to activate and successfully power up the gears of sustainability.

Keywords: Leadership, Corporate Sustainability, Sustainability, sustainable business, green business, corporate social responsibility, Organization Change, Organization Development

JEL Classification: M14