Challenges for Business Sustainability Practices
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2025) | Viewed by 2586
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
There is increasing pressure on organizations to adopt sustainable business practices that (1) minimise their carbon footprint and the impact on the natural environment, (2) support local communities and social wellbeing, and (3) reduce waste and adopt sustainable resource use. Furthermore, government policies and regulations require businesses to comply to certain environmental protection laws and to report on their impacts. Organizations of different size and industry sectors all play an important role for global sustainability; however, there is much variance in the capacity and capabilities of organizations in implementing sustainability practices. These challenges are complex and multifaceted, requiring strategic and innovative approaches for effective management. The recent swissVR Monitor (2024), based on a survey of 409 members of company Board of Directors from Switzerland, discovered the top three factors hampering sustainability efforts, including (1) difficulties in measuring their environmental impact, (2) limited time resources, and (3) high costs of sustainability measures. The implementation of sustainability practices often demands significant financial investment in technologies and processes. In times when many businesses are trying to navigate rapid technological advancement, increasing competition, changing customer needs, risks in supply chains, increasing operating costs, and shrinking profit margins, investing in sustainable practices may be viewed as an added burden rather than an opportunity.
This Special Issue will be devoted to uncovering the challenges, barriers, and inhibitors businesses face when implementing sustainability practices and to presenting empirical and practical insights on how these challenges can be overcome to support businesses in building capacity.
References: swissVR Monitor (2024). ‘Sustainability and the Board – here to stay’. swissVR/ Deloitte AG/ Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ch/Documents/audit/deloitte-ch-en-swissvr-i-2024.pdf.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- SMEs and sustainability practices;
- Circular economy;
- Barriers to sustainability in the service industries;
- Waste management: challenges and opportunities;
- Government policies to support business sustainability;
- Business sustainability practices across sectors;
- Measuring the performance of sustainability practices;
- Corporate governance and firms’ sustainability practices;
- Technology and business’ sustainability practices;
- Human capital, social capital, and business sustainability practices.
I look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Rob Hallak
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- sustainable business
- circular economy
- innovation
- green practices
- business models
- ESG
- waste management
- social and environmental impact
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