Can Environmental Aesthetics Promote Corporate Sustainability?

Abstract

Environmental aesthetics (EA) extends appreciation beyond art to the natural environment through an engagement with and sensory immersion in the natural world that privileges its aesthetic value. The purpose of this article is to ascertain the extent to which EA can promote corporate sustainability. As management scholars have only just begun to address this issue, the article reviews both management and wider aesthetics and sustainability literatures. The review concludes that EA can promote corporate sustainability but only when it is qualified by insights from ecology and ethics. There are recommendations for managers to facilitate EA and for researchers to undertake empirical studies in this field.