TSSS is excited to have the authors’ permission to publish a link to a new Harvard Business School working paper, which will soon be published in a top academic journal. It will provide much support to all of us out there who are trying to get corporations to go beyond greenwashing and PR and get serious about creating what the authors call “a culture of sustainability”. A special thank-you to executive leadership consultant, Louise Macdonald, for summarizing the high points of the article.
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Improved Financial Performance
I just read some great new research to support “business case for sustainability” which many participants of the TSSS community continue to refine in order to become more effective as sustainability change agents. The working paper is called “The Impact of a Corporate Culture of Sustainability on Corporate Behavior and Performance”, by Robert G. Eccles and George Serafeim of the Harvard Business School, and Ioannis Ioannou of the London Business School. It is not exactly light bedtime reading, especially if you get into the elements of scientific inquiry that are detailed throughout, but it is compelling in that it provides evidence that creating a culture of sustainability leads to improved corporate financial performance in the long-term. Perhaps those of us who are passionate about sustainability knew that already, but here is a study spanning 18 years and involving 180 companies that clinches it and provides more food for discussion about the cost-benefit equation of shifting the corporate mindset.
On June 12, 2013, 
