BMW is probably not a company that comes to mind in a section describing sustainability. Yet, BMW, the iconic German manufacturer of high-performance luxury autos, is making a huge bet on green, wired cars for those who reside in cities.31 Its all-electric car is unlike anything that BMW—or any other car manufacturer—has made. The car’s weight-saving, carbon-fiber body is layered with electronic services and smartphone apps ready to make life simpler and more efficient for the owner and better for the planet. Company executives recognized that it had to add products that would meet the challenges of a changing world. This corporate action by a well-known global company affirms that sustainability and green management have become mainstream issues for managers.

What’s emerging in the twenty-first century is the concept of managing in a sustainable way, which has had the effect of widening corporate responsibility not only to managing in an efficient and effective way, but also to responding strategically to a wide range of environmental and societal challenges.32 Although “sustainability” may mean different things to different people, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development describes a scenario where all earth’s inhabitants can live well with adequate resources.33 From a business perspective, sustainability has been defined as a company’s ability to achieve its business goals and increase long-term shareholder value by integrating economic, environmental, and social opportunities into its business strategies.34 Sustainability issues are now moving up the business agenda. Managers at BMW, McDonald’s, Walmart, Levi Strauss, L’Oreal, and other global businesses are discovering that running an organization in a more sustainable way will mean making informed business decisions based on (1) communicating openly with various stakeholders and understanding their requirements and (2) factoring economic, environmental, and social aspects into how they pursue their business goals. Throughout the rest of the book, we’ll explore sustainability as it relates to various aspects of managing. Just look for this for those conversations.