Corporate Sustainability Practices: A Review on the Measurements, Relevant Problems and a Proposition

Abstract

In recent years, corporate sustainability practices (CSP) or triple bottom line (TBL) is considered more important than just financial performance to the future success of business firms. Organizations are achieving significant benefits from incorporating sustainability in business. In addition to profit maximization, CSP is also considered to be a vital vehicle to reduce the corporate scandals. It is a common practice to engage in CSP by large companies in developed countries, but still, it is a controversial issue in developing countries. Moreover, given the critical role of CSP, government regulators are attaching more emphasis on such practices in business firms all over the world. Defining and measuring CSP is more than just an academic apprehension. In spite of nearly 50 years of previous research on sustainability, still, there is no certain standard for measuring CSP of an organization. The objectives of this article are to define CSP more clearly, discuss different techniques of measuring CSP and propose a new method for determining the CSP of firms following Bursa Malaysia Berhad reporting guideline-2015 which have been prepared according to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting framework.