Organizational Sustainability Practices: A Study of the Firms Listed by the Corporate Sustainability Index

Abstract

Organizational sustainability (OS) has been guiding the decision-making process of managers in order to generate competitive advantage. This paper aims to identify the sustainable practices performed by large corporations in the implementation of OS. Reports with actions performed by large organizations and their reach in the three pillars of sustainability—environmental, economic, and social dimensions—are disclosed to their main stakeholders, based on short, medium and long-term sustainable goals. These reports often reflect the progress of OS or the progress made toward them. However, few studies investigate the sustainable practices adopted by firms and their reproducibility. A search was performed in reports selected from the firms listed by the Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) from 2012–2016, belonging to the Brazilian stock market in services sector of the economy and employed the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) methodology. The results showed the strategic planning involving infrastructure, environment, human resources, product innovation, organizational management and deadline setting acted as the baseline for the implementation of the practices found. The findings will guide the managers´ decisions in the development of their strategic planning, based on practical and objective results.