Business Sustainability in Asia

CHAPTER 1Introduction to Business Sustainability

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Business sustainability is gaining considerable attention from investors, regulators and businesses worldwide and particularly those in Asia. In today's business environment, global businesses face increasing scrutiny and profound pressure from lawmakers, regulators, the investment community and their various stakeholders to focus on their multiple-bottom-line (MBL) of economic, governance, social, ethical and environmental (EGSEE) performance. Global organizations recognize the importance of sustainability performance in creating shared value for all their stakeholders from shareholders to creditors, customers, suppliers, employees, government, society and the environment. A growing number of public companies worldwide and listed companies in Asia in particular are now issuing sustainability reports on some or all five EGSEE dimensions of sustainability performance. This trend is expected to continue well into the future. This chapter presents an introduction to business sustainability performance, reporting and assurance in the context of the Asian business environment.

2. INTRODUCTION

Business organizations worldwide and public companies in Asia in particular are now facing the challenges of adopting proper management strategies and practices to effectively respond to social, ethical, environmental and governance issues while creating sustainable financial performance. Traditionally, business organizations ...