Doing business impacts both people and the planet. Managing and enhancing the relationship businesses have with the environment and society they interact with is what sustainable business is about. More generally, sustainability issues are increasingly prominent in all aspects of human life - our work, education, what we buy, and how we spend our free time. Awareness of the environmental and social footprint behind everyday products and services such as the food we eat, the homes we live in, transport choices, what clothing we wear, and the holidays we take is growing. For the businesses that produce these products and services, there is increasing pressure to demonstrate they are managing their footprint sustainably. This is intensified by environmental risks, such as resource scarcity and erratic weather from climate change, becoming more urgent. Similarly, social problems such as child labour, poor working conditions, and human trafficking are becoming more visible to the consumer. In this Very Short Introduction Dorothy Maxwell discusses how businesses manage these increasingly complex sustainability challenges. Using examples from household name companies, she considers the ways in which the challenges have been met so far, and the future for sustainable business.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author Biography

Dr. Dorothy Maxwell has been working in environment and sustainability with businesses, government, and NGOs for twenty-four years in the USA, Europe, and Asia Pacific. She has a PhD in Environmental Science and Masters in Environmental Economics & Law from Imperial College London. She specializes in sustainability in business. She holds several university visiting lecturer posts. Since 2001, she is a visiting lecturer on sustainable business at Imperial College London environment and business schools. She is also a visiting lecturer on sustainability at University College Dublin business school and Dublin Institute of Technology Masters in Sustainable Development. She is the author of Valuing Natural Capital - Future Proofing Business & Finance, (Greenleaf Publishers, April, 2015).