What is sustainability?

According to Egon Zehnder International Sustainability A Working Definition ‘Sustainability’ refers here to the generally accepted definition that encompasses three inter-related forms of sustainability – economic, environmental and social.

Economic sustainability is the ability of an organization to maintain economic profitability by generating value from its offering of products and services. Successful organizations find a way to translate their relative competitive advantages into economic values that deliver returns to their owners.
Environmental sustainability is the ability of an organization to ensure that its long-run economic behavior is not undermining its own or the broader natural environment. This recognizes that natural resources have a finite capacity either for exploitation or as sinks for pollutants.
Social sustainability is the recognition that an organization operates within a broader social context and relies on it to prosper and survive. The social dimension of sustainability affects an organization’s activities at every step of the value chain – from suppliers’ use of international labor to employee, customer and community engagement.