“What purpose does a company serve in the world?” — Different views of Today’s and Tomorrow’s Sustainability Professionals

By Nathalie Mantel & Johanna Hallin

During this spring, we asked 100+ students and sustainability professionals about their views on what companies should do to ensure sustainable development.

The results showed a need to define what purpose a company serves in the world, as well as define their responsibility and change agency.

The dialogues and discussions we have held as a part of this project shines a light on the need for collective framing of concepts. The views of what to prioritise in working with sustainability for the future in these two groups interviewed was expected to be different — but through the research is has become clear that definitions of what a company is, or should be in a sustainable future and on the path to it, seems unclear to both groups. Purpose seems to be a central underlying theme — what purpose does a company serve in the world?

Who owns sustainability?

Depending on what we decide, a vast set of options of what this company will do and what responsibility it will take is going to manifest itself. The confusion around what a company is in our modern day, also presents obstacles in the ownership of sustainability. The company structures are being connected to vastly different identifiers, and very different aspects and extents of sustainability responsibility. Maybe a testament to a rapidly changing future. Undeniably powerful and a mandatory part of reaching the Agenda 2030, the corporations’ role is as difficult to define as the politicians when handing out responsibility and ownership.

As is the amount of responsibility resting on the individual, the company, the state or the UN is unclear, and especially when linked with global value chains, regulations and great challenges needing solving. The UN Agenda 2030 is an interesting framework to benchmark against when regarding students’ and sustainability professionals’ self-perception and attitudes towards the change we need to live on a sustainable planet. It represents the overarching, top level and big movement that we are working towards, the vision in one way.

What do we need a company to be?

The awareness in the student group of this global initiative was very low, which seemed to narrow their mind-set of what was possible to achieve in terms of sustainable development. When lacking insight of the big strategy and the gathering movement that the Agenda aspires to be, their conclusions land in their own hands — consumer choices and being on the receiving end of corporate sustainability communication. Although more research is much needed — an interesting question that arose in our work with this article was, purpose a company should serve in our modern day? And maybe more importantly, what do we need a company to be in this changed context?

And maybe more importantly, what do we need a company to be in this changed context?

Please read the entire article published in Journal of Business Theory and Practice: What purpose does a company serve in the world? Swedish students and sustainability professionals in dialogue on corporate sustainability.

Nathalie Mantel is the COO of Inter Business Initiative, a knowledge lab, developing framework towards holistic value creation where business can act as change agents in a world where sustainability, responsibility, agency are business as usual.

Johanna Hallin is the founder and Chair of Inter Business, and her (my) day job is CEO of Srey.