A longitudinal analysis of the knowledge and application of sustainability management tools in large German companies

Stefan Schaltegger (), Sarah Elena Windolph () and Christian Herzig ()
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Stefan Schaltegger: Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Centre for Sustainability Management Lüneburg Germany
Sarah Elena Windolph: Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Centre for Sustainability Management Lüneburg Germany
Christian Herzig: Nottingham University Business School International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR) Nottingham UK

Society and Economy, 2012, vol. 34, issue 4, 549-579

Abstract: The operationalisation of sustainability on the corporate level is recognised to be a management task and implies the choice and application of management tools. Although researchers have proposed a large number of sustainability management tools in the literature, little is known about their acceptance and implementation. This paper extends the existing literature on the dissemination of tools. It discusses which sustainability management tools are known and applied in practice, and conducts a longitudinal analysis based on three empirical surveys among large German companies carried out in 2002, 2006 and 2010. One important result is that the knowledge and the application of sustainability management tools are positively related. Furthermore, the application of sustainability management tools has increased throughout the period of the surveys. A main conclusion drawn from the empirical results is that increased knowledge, for example through the promotion of approaches and professional education, may be a driver of more frequent application and the dissemination of sustainability management tools, and may foster sustainable development.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; corporate sustainability; implementation; management system; sustainability management; tools (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D80 M10 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
Note: We are grateful for the financial support of PwC while collecting part of the data analysed in this paper. The authors would like to thank the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, the Federation of German Industries, and Econsense, Forum for Sustainable Development of German Business, for funding a project which also provided data analysed in this paper. Many thanks to Roger Burritt, Dorli Harms, Jacob Hörisch and Joanne Tingey-Holyoak who contributed with very valuable comments to this paper.
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