Sustainability and the Firm

Forest Reinhardt
Additional contact information
Forest Reinhardt: Harvard Business School, Morgan Hall, 265 Soldiers Field, Boston, Massachusetts 02163

Interfaces, 2000, vol. 30, issue 3, 26-41

Abstract: Macroeconomic definitions of sustainability focus on the need to maintain aggregate stocks of natural and manufactured capital constant over time, so that future generations have consumption possibilities similar to those of the current generation. Similar tests can be applied at the firm level. To be sustainable, a company must maintain on its balance sheet an undiminished level of total net assets, measured at their social costs. It must also pass a similar test when assets are valued at prevailing private costs. To make realistic assessments of a country's or firm's sustainability, therefore, one needs to consider its overall economic performance as well as its environmental performance. By this definition, sustainability is intimately linked to the fundamental preoccupations of business managers: productivity, investment, and profit.

Keywords: ENVIRONMENT; PLANNING—CORPORATE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/inte.30.3.26.11667 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orinte:v:30:y:2000:i:3:p:26-41

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Interfaces from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().