This book conceptualizes and clarifies the meaning of sustainable performance, approaching it holistically from different perspectives. It focuses on challenges related to movements to transform the world economy into more modern, resource-efficient, and competitive, while keeping in mind harmonization of environmental, social, and governance objectives. This has brought along new initiatives and undertakings that invite people, communities, and organizations to participate in building greener and more sustainable future. The book discusses the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), EU Green Deal and Climate Pact, and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) metrics. It tackles policies and strategies that integrate sustainable practices into business activities to align with these goals, focusing on the increasing number of regulations, such as ESG Reporting, Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and Green Taxonomy. The book highlights new challenges organizations will face as they navigate their way through these goals and regulations, and provides practical coping tips.
It is divided into four main parts which consecutively discuss and analyze the concepts and approaches more generally in the first part, challenges, approaches, and metrics on green and sustainable performance on regional and local level in the second part; and on companies' level in the third part; and how top-down (public sector) and bottom-up (private sector) approaches meet. Finally, in the fourth part, the book showcases concrete cases and best practices related to the above-described topics showing how the challenges related to green and sustainable performance have been turned to new opportunities and competitive advantage in different organizations in different industries.
The book is a valuable resource for not only academia, researchers, master, and doctoral level students (especially in the sustainability courses), and executive trainings, but also practitioners, politicians, public officials, and organizational leaders interested in turning their organizations into more sustainable units.
Table of Contents:
Organisational Sustainable Performance: Definitions and Public/Private Perspectives.- Sustainable Human Capital Management: Fostering Employee Well-being and Growth.- The responsible marketing mix: aligning the 4 Ps with sustainability dimensions.- Operationalising Doughnut Economics for Regional Green Transition: An Integrated Multi-Level Stakeholder Engagement Strategy.- GovTech Companies' Contributions to SDGs: exploring reporting and communication practices.- Organisational study on sustainability, hypocrisy, and Finnish universities.- Sustainability challenges of SMEs related to legal regulations – experiences from a survey of Hungarian entrepreneurs.- ESG Scores and Carbon Emission Performance as Investment Factors: A Comparative Analysis of Financial Performance.- Estonian top-level executives’ attitudes towards sustainability and corporate social responsibility.- The Fintech Financial Industry: An Approach to its Sustainability and Social Value.- The Role of Socially Responsible Human Resource Management in Employee Voice Enhancement and Diminishing Silence: Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Literature Review.
About the Author :
Dr. Mari Kooskora is an associate professor, a researcher, and a trainer at Estonian Business School and has been recently engaged as ESG senior advisor at KPMG. She has expertise in business ethics, responsible leadership, and sustainable management for over 25 years in 12 countries. She is the author of research papers published in nationally and internationally recognized journals and has given numerous conference presentations. Her main research interests are ethics and responsibility in business and leadership, sustainability, and women in leadership. As a board member of ISBEE (International Society of Business and Economics Ethics); EUMMAS (European Marketing and Management Association) and previously also Responsible Business Forum Estonia (2017-2023) and Transparency International Estonia (2009-2014), member of Business and Professional Women and European Business Ethics Network, she is actively contributing to the development of more balanced and sustainable business and governance.
Dr. Aleksandra Kekkonen is a Head of the Green & CSR research team, Senior Researcher and Lecturer at Estonian Business School, Circular Economy and Sustainable Living enthusiast. EBS Green Ambassador 2022. She has a background in international relations and a PhD in Economics in the field of regional human capital development, labour market, and education system development on the national and international levels from 2013. Currently, her specialisation and main areas of interest are green economy, sustainable development, and especially accelerating the transition to a circular economy on macro and local levels, as well as community involvement practices for green transition.
