research papers about environmental sustainability

Sustainable Environment Research

Call for papers: upcoming collection, nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation, guest edited by: pierre-antoine versini, amy oen, natalia rodriguez and daniela rizzi.

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Selective adsorption of gold ion in wastewater with competing cations by novel thiourea-reduced graphene oxide

Authors: Yu-Jie Chen, Adrienne Chung and Hsing-Cheng Hsi

Extraction of arsenic from fine dust of copper smelters by reduction roasting with natural gas

Authors: Nurlan Dosmukhamedov, Abdilmalik Takishov, Erzhan Zholdasbay and Aidar Argyn

Assessment and analysis of polydimethylsiloxane-coated solar photovoltaic panels for cost-efficient solutions

Authors: Mohd Syukri Ali, Lilik Jamilatul Awalin, Amirul Syafiq Abdul Jaafar, Azimah Omar, Ab Halim Abu Bakar, Nasrudin Abd Rahim and Syahirah Abd Halim

Volatilization of benzene on soil surface under different factors: evaluation and modeling

Authors: Qian Wang, Jianmin Bian and Dongmei Ruan

Supply of bioelectricity from sugarcane bagasse in Brazil: a space–time analysis

Authors: Luiz Moreira Coelho Junior, Edvaldo Pereira Santos Júnior, Cleani Figueredo Fideles da Silva, Brunna Hillary Calixto de Oliveira, João Batista Cordeiro Dantas, Josimar Vieira dos Reis, Vanessa Batista Schramm, Fernando Schramm and Monica Carvalho

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Biological wastewater treatment and bioreactor design: a review

Authors: C. M. Narayanan and Vikas Narayan

A comprehensive review on indoor air quality monitoring systems for enhanced public health

Authors: Jagriti Saini, Maitreyee Dutta and Gonçalo Marques

A system for monitoring water quality in a large aquatic area using wireless sensor network technology

Authors: Alexander T. Demetillo, Michelle V. Japitana and Evelyn B. Taboada

Study of the feasibility of a rice husk recycling scheme in Japan to produce silica fertilizer for rice plants

Authors: Ryoko Sekifuji and Masafumi Tateda

Near infrared band of Landsat 8 as water index: a case study around Cordova and Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, Philippines

Authors: Jeremy P. Mondejar and Alejandro F. Tongco

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Journal Announcement

2020-2022 Editor's Choice Articles

Archival Content

The archival content of Sustainable Environment Research can be located here . 

Aims and scope

The primary goal of Sustainable Environment Research (SER) is to publish high quality research articles associated with sustainable environmental science and technology and to contribute to improving environmental practice. The scope of SER includes issues of environmental science, technology, management and related fields, especially in response to sustainable water, energy and other natural resources. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Water and Wastewater

• Biological processes • Physical and chemical processes • Watershed management • Advanced and innovative treatment

2. Soil and Groundwater Pollution

• Contaminant fate and transport processes • Contaminant site investigation technology • Soil and groundwater remediation technology • Risk assessment in contaminant sites

3. Air Pollution and Climate Change

• Ambient air quality management • Greenhouse gases control • Gaseous and particulate pollution control • Indoor air quality management and control

4. Waste Management

• Waste reduction and minimization • Resource recovery and conservation • Solid waste treatment technology and disposal

5. Energy and Resources

• Sustainable energy • Local, regional and global sustainability • Environmental management system • Life-cycle assessment • Environmental policy instruments • Techno-economic assessment

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Sustainable Environment Research  is affiliated with the  Chinese Institute of Environmental Engineering

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Citation Impact 2023 Journal Impact Factor: 4.6 5-year Journal Impact Factor: 5.7 Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): 1.291 SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 0.907

Speed 2023 Submission to first editorial decision (median days): 21 Submission to acceptance (median days): 147

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Collection  12 March 2023

Top 100 in Sustainability - 2022

This collection highlights our most downloaded* sustainability papers published in 2022. Featuring authors from around the world, these papers showcase valuable research from an international community.

You can also view the top papers across various subject areas here .

*Data obtained from SN Insights, which is based on Digital Science's Dimensions. 

The determinants of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality across countries

• Dianna Chang
• Kelvin Jui Keng Tan

Energy recovery of waste plastics into diesel fuel with ethanol and ethoxy ethyl acetate additives on circular economy strategy

• Sambandam Padmanabhan
• K. Giridharan
• Ramaswamy Krishnaraj

Greenhouse gas emissions from global production and use of nitrogen synthetic fertilisers in agriculture

• Stefano Menegat
• Alicia Ledo
• Reyes Tirado

Understanding the diversity and biogeography of Colombian edible plants

• M. Diazgranados

Tracking hidden crisis in India’s capital from space: implications of unsustainable groundwater use

• Shagun Garg
• Mahdi Motagh
• Vamshi Karanam

Quantifying and categorising national extinction-risk footprints

• Amanda Irwin
• Arne Geschke
• Bernardo B. N. Strassburg

Estimation of lung cancer deaths attributable to indoor radon exposure in upper northern Thailand

• Kawinwut Somsunun
• Tippawan Prapamontol
• Shinji Tokonami

Polymer-assisted enzyme induced carbonate precipitation for non-ammonia emission soil stabilization

• Sivakumar Gowthaman
• Satoru Kawasaki

Impact of COVID-19 on food insecurity using multiple waves of high frequency household surveys

• Shouro Dasgupta
• Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson

Differential impact of government lockdown policies on reducing air pollution levels and related mortality in Europe

• Rochelle Schneider
• Pierre Masselot
• Antonio Gasparrini

Phytolith evidence for the pastoral origins of multi-cropping in Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq)

• Elise Jakoby Laugier
• Jesse Casana
• Dan Cabanes

Effect of nitrogen and zinc nanofertilizer with the organic farming practices on cereal and oil seed crops

• Kapur Singh
• Ramesh Raliya

Potential distribution of fall armyworm in Africa and beyond, considering climate change and irrigation patterns

• Bipana Paudel Timilsena
• Saliou Niassy
• Sevgan Subramanian

Nutrient quality and maturity status of frass fertilizer from nine edible insects

• Dennis Beesigamukama
• Chrysantus M. Tanga

Attributing changes in food insecurity to a changing climate

Increased climate pressure on the agricultural frontier in the Eastern Amazonia–Cerrado transition zone

• José A. Marengo
• Juan C. Jimenez
• Luiz E. O. Aragão

Influencing factors and reduction of domestic solid waste at university dormitory in Shanghai, China

• Mengyang Li

Characterization of chitin and chitosan derived from Hermetia illucens , a further step in a circular economy process

• Micaela Triunfo
• Patrizia Falabella

Characterization of rice farming systems, production constraints and determinants of adoption of improved varieties by smallholder farmers of the Republic of Benin

• Yêyinou Laura Estelle Loko
• Charlemagne D. S. J. Gbemavo
• François Sabot

Spatial and temporal changes of outdoor thermal stress: influence of urban land cover types

• Mohammad A. Rahman
• Eleonora Franceschi
• Stephan Pauleit

A network analysis of global cephalopod trade

• Andres Ospina-Alvarez
• Silvia de Juan
• Sebastián Villasante

Fungicidal properties of ginger ( Zingiber officinale ) essential oils against Phytophthora colocasiae

• Muhammad Talib Kalhoro
• Farhan Nabi

Determinants of severe acute malnutrition among children aged 6–36 months in Kalafo district (riverine context) of Ethiopia

• Ahmed Tahir Ahmed
• Abdulahi Haji Abas
• Abdilahi Omer

Amendment with Burkina Faso phosphate rock-enriched composts alters soil chemical properties and microbial structure, and enhances sorghum agronomic performance

• Adama Sagnon
• Shinya Iwasaki
• Papa Saliou Sarr

Growing urban bicycle networks

• Michael Szell
• Sayat Mimar
• Roberta Sinatra

Tests of rubber granules used as artificial turf for football fields in terms of toxicity to human health and the environment

• Beata Grynkiewicz-Bylina
• Bożena Rakwic
• Barbara Słomka-Słupik

Urban growth modelling and social vulnerability assessment for a hazardous Kathmandu Valley

• Carlos Mesta
• Gemma Cremen
• Carmine Galasso

Farm typology of smallholders integrated farming systems in Southern Coastal Plains of Kerala, India

• Anitrosa Innazent
• A. S. Panwar

A biodegradable chipless sensor for wireless subsoil health monitoring

• Sarath Gopalakrishnan
• Jose Waimin
• Rahim Rahimi

Groundwater irrigation reduces overall poverty but increases socioeconomic vulnerability in a semiarid region of southern India

• Chloé Fischer
• Claire Aubron
• Laurent Ruiz

A sandponics comparative study investigating different sand media based integrated aqua vegeculture systems using desalinated water

• Hani Sewilam
• Fahad Kimera
• Mahmoud Dawood

Impact of recent climate change on corn, rice, and wheat in southeastern USA

• Ramandeep Kumar Sharma
• Sunny Kumar
• Krishna N. Reddy

Effects of organic fertilizers on growth characteristics and fruit quality in Pear-jujube in the Loess Plateau

• Shenglan Ye
• Tiancheng Liu

A deep learning approach for medical waste classification

• Haiying Zhou

The beneficial effects of intradialytic parenteral nutrition in hemodialysis patients with protein energy wasting: a prospective randomized controlled trial

• Piyawan Kittiskulnam
• Athiphat Banjongjit
• Somchai Eiam-Ong

Interactive effect of soil moisture content and phosphorus fertilizer form on chickpea growth, photosynthesis, and nutrient uptake

• Mohamed Chtouki
• Fatima Laaziz
• Abdallah Oukarroum

The impact of nutritional status on health-related quality of life in hemodialysis patients

• Lucia Visiedo
• Jimena Abilés

Machine learning approach for study on subway passenger flow

• Yoonhee Choi
• Jae Keun Yoo

Wheat growth monitoring and yield estimation based on remote sensing data assimilation into the SAFY crop growth model

• Mingxing Liu

Deep-rooted perennial crops differ in capacity to stabilize C inputs in deep soil layers

• Leanne Peixoto
• Jørgen E. Olesen
• Jim Rasmussen

Chemical properties of the coffee grounds and poultry eggshells mixture in terms of soil improver

• Barbara Tombarkiewicz
• Jacek Antonkiewicz
• Olga Gorczyca

Smart-parking management algorithms in smart city

• Mahdi Jemmali
• Loai Kayed B. Melhim
• Mohamed Nazih Omri

Social capital's impact on COVID-19 outcomes at local levels

• Timothy Fraser
• Courtney Page-Tan
• Daniel P. Aldrich

Factors affecting the implementation of soil conservation practices among Iranian farmers

• Moslem Savari
• Masoud Yazdanpanah
• Davoud Rouzaneh

Municipal biowaste treatment plants contribute to the contamination of the environment with residues of biodegradable plastics with putative higher persistence potential

• Thomas Steiner
• Yuanhu Zhang
• Ruth Freitag

Complementary feeding pattern and its determinants among mothers in selected primary health centers in the urban metropolis of Ekiti State, Nigeria

• Deborah Tolulope Esan
• Oluwaseun Eniola Adegbilero-Iwari
• Aderonke Julienne Adetunji

Protecting playgrounds: local-scale reduction of airborne particulate matter concentrations through particulate deposition on roadside ‘tredges’ (green infrastructure)

• Barbara A. Maher
• Tomasz Gonet
• Thomas J. Bannan

Insights into countries’ exposure and vulnerability to food trade shocks from network-based simulations

• Marco Grassia
• Giuseppe Mangioni
• Silvio Traverso

Assessing the impacts of agricultural drought (SPI/SPEI) on maize and wheat yields across Hungary

• Safwan Mohammed
• Karam Alsafadi
• Endre Harsanyi

Conservation agriculture based integrated crop management sustains productivity and economic profitability along with soil properties of the maize-wheat rotation

• Vijay Pooniya
• R. R. Zhiipao

Automated food intake tracking requires depth-refined semantic segmentation to rectify visual-volume discordance in long-term care homes

• Kaylen J. Pfisterer
• Robert Amelard
• Alexander Wong

Predictors of drought-induced crop yield/losses in two agroecologies of southern Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

• Emmanuel Eze
• Atkilt Girma
• Emnet Negash

Childhood individual and family modifiable risk factors for criminal conviction: a 7-year cohort study from Brazil

• Carolina Ziebold
• Sara Evans-Lacko
• Ary Gadelha

Scenario-based analysis of the impacts of lake drying on food production in the Lake Urmia Basin of Northern Iran

• Bakhtiar Feizizadeh
• Tobia Lakes
• Sadra Karimzadeh

Complex drought patterns robustly explain global yield loss for major crops

• Monia Santini
• Sergio Noce
• Luca Caporaso

Inequality and inequity in network-based ranking and recommendation algorithms

• Lisette Espín-Noboa
• Claudia Wagner
• Fariba Karimi

Reduction of pesticide application via real-time precision spraying

• Alex Rogers Aguiar Zanin
• Danilo Carvalho Neves
• Fábio Henrique Rojo Baio

Artificial intelligence development races in heterogeneous settings

• Theodor Cimpeanu
• Francisco C. Santos
• The Anh Han

Molecular mechanisms associated with microbial biostimulant-mediated growth enhancement, priming and drought stress tolerance in maize plants

• Motseoa Lephatsi
• Lerato Nephali
• Fidele Tugizimana

Plant growth promoting characteristics of halophilic and halotolerant bacteria isolated from coastal regions of Saurashtra Gujarat

• Likhindra Reang
• Shraddha Bhatt
• Jasmin Kumar Kheni

Wildmeat consumption and child health in Amazonia

• Patricia Carignano Torres
• Carla Morsello

Overnutrition is a significant component of food waste and has a large environmental impact

• Silvio Franco
• Marco Barbanera
• Riccardo Massantini

Seed priming with selenium and zinc nanoparticles modifies germination, growth, and yield of direct-seeded rice ( Oryza sativa L.)

• Saju Adhikary
• Benukar Biswas

Universality of political corruption networks

• Alvaro F. Martins
• Bruno R. da Cunha
• Haroldo V. Ribeiro

Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies

• Sheina Lew-Levy
• Rachel Reckin
• Helen E. Davis

Urban blue–green space landscape ecological health assessment based on the integration of pattern, process, function and sustainability

• Shuang Song
• Shaohan Wang

Study on landscape evaluation and optimization strategy of Central Park in Qingkou Town

• Lingyan Xiang
• Yunqing Tian

Sources, toxicity potential, and human health risk assessment of heavy metals-laden soil and dust of urban and suburban areas as affected by industrial and mining activities

• Hamed A. Al-Swadi
• Adel R. A. Usman
• Abdulelah Al-Faraj

Genome-wide association study identifies loci and candidate genes for grain micronutrients and quality traits in wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.)

• Nagenahalli Dharmegowda Rathan
• Hari Krishna
• Anju Mahendru-Singh

Salt‑responsive transcriptome analysis of canola roots reveals candidate genes involved in the key metabolic pathway in response to salt stress

• Weichao Wang
• Jiayin Pang
• Kadambot H. M. Siddique

Inequality of public facilities between urban and rural areas and its driving factors in ten cities of China

• Kaixuan Pan

Exploring urban growth–climate change–flood risk nexus in fast growing cities

• Salah Basem Ajjur
• Sami G. Al-Ghamdi

The cost of non-coordination in urban on-demand mobility

• Dániel Kondor
• Carlo Ratti

Promotion of seed germination and early plant growth by KNO 3 and light spectra in Ocimum tenuiflorum using a plant factory

• Akira Thongtip
• Kriengkrai Mosaleeyanon
• Panita Chutimanukul

Prediction of arabica coffee production using artificial neural network and multiple linear regression techniques

• Yotsaphat Kittichotsatsawat
• Nakorn Tippayawong
• Korrakot Yaibuathet Tippayawong

The impact of alternative energy technology investment on environment and food security in northern Ethiopia

• Daniel Assefa Tofu
• Kebede Wolka
• Teshale Woldeamanuel

Association of food insecurity on gut microbiome and metabolome profiles in a diverse college-based sample

• Alex E. Mohr
• Paniz Jasbi
• Meg Bruening

Chitosan oligosaccharide alleviates the growth inhibition caused by physcion and synergistically enhances resilience in maize seedlings

• Jingchong Li
• Runqiang Liu

Psychological impact of far-right terrorism against Muslim minorities on national distress, community, and wellbeing

• Kate G. Byrne
• Kumar Yogeeswaran
• Chris G. Sibley

Energy and economic efficiency of climate-smart agriculture practices in a rice–wheat cropping system of India

• S. K. Kakraliya

Adverse health and environmental outcomes of cycling in heavily polluted urban environments

• Ewa Adamiec
• Elżbieta Jarosz-Krzemińska
• Aleksandra Bilkiewicz-Kubarek

Foliar nutrient supplementation with micronutrient-embedded fertilizer increases biofortification, soil biological activity and productivity of eggplant

• Ram Swaroop Bana
• Gograj Singh Jat
• Teekam Singh

Mitigating spread of contamination in meat supply chain management using deep learning

• Mohammad Amin Amani
• Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie

Air pollution exposure disparities in US public housing developments

• Jayajit Chakraborty
• Timothy W. Collins
• Jacob J. Aun

Systematic review of mental health symptom changes by sex or gender in early-COVID-19 compared to pre-pandemic

• Tiffany Dal Santo
• Brett D. Thombs

Evaluation and promotion strategy of resilience of urban water supply system under flood and drought disasters

• Zhiguo Shao

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Mechanical performance of sustainable high strength ductile fiber reinforced concrete (HSDFRC) with wooden ash

• Jawad Ahmad
• Rebeca Martínez-García
• Mostefa Bourchak

High performance recycled CFRP composites based on reused carbon fabrics through sustainable mild solvolysis route

• N. Sallem-Idrissi
• P. Van Velthem

Selective signatures and high genome-wide diversity in traditional Brazilian manioc ( Manihot esculenta Crantz) varieties

• Alessandro Alves-Pereira
• Maria Imaculada Zucchi
• Anete Pereira de Souza

Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application

• Daniel J. C. Stewart
• Lucy V. Fisher
• Andrew R. Barron

Outburst of pest populations in rice-based cropping systems under conservation agricultural practices in the middle Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia

• Rakesh Kumar
• Jaipal Singh Choudhary
• Andrew McDonald

Simulation of emergency evacuation from construction site of prefabricated buildings

• Mufeng Xiao
• Yumeng Wang

Assessment of plant growth promoting bacteria strains on growth, yield and quality of sweet corn

• Nikolaos Katsenios
• Varvara Andreou
• Aspasia Efthimiadou

A bacteria-based carbon sequestration and waste recycling system

• Yeon Hwa La
• Ki-Sung Lee
• Jae Yang Song

Behavioural thermal regulation explains pedestrian path choices in hot urban environments

• Valentin R. Melnikov
• Georgios I. Christopoulos
• Peter M. A. Sloot

Integrated graph measures reveal survival likelihood for buildings in wildfire events

• Akshat Chulahwat
• Hussam Mahmoud
• Adrián Cardil Forradellas

Performance behaviour of agro-waste based gypsum hollow blocks for partition walls

• Siddharth Singh
• Soumitra Maiti
• Soraj Kumar Panigrahi

Effects of rare earth elements on bacteria in rhizosphere, root, phyllosphere and leaf of soil–rice ecosystem

• Xinzhuan Zhang
• Zhongjun Hu

Towards symbiotic approaches between universities, sustainable development, and cities

• Walter Leal Filho
• Liliana Caughman
• Amanda Lange Salvia

Effects of soil properties on heavy metal bioavailability and accumulation in crop grains under different farmland use patterns

• Zhangjun Shen

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The Top 30 Global Sustainability Research Papers in 2019

In 2019, record-high global temperatures and climate change took central stage in global news headlines, culminating with a declaration from more than 11,000 scientists from around the world that a climate emergency exists on Earth. This declaration got people talking on social media and in the news, more so than any other scientific publication in 2019.

Altmetric annually ranks the 100 scientific papers that glean the most media attention as a simple measure of what sparks public interest. In 2019, they examined over 62 million media mentions of 2.7 million research articles. The altmetric score does not measure the calibre of the research or researcher.

At Future Earth, we used the list to identify the top 30 global sustainability articles. We were guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognize that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, combating inequality within and among countries, preserving the planet, creating sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and fostering social inclusion are linked to each other and are interdependent.

Taking a closer look at the top five, the rising threat posed by climate change (SDG 13) was a central concern in 2019 as reflected by this year’s top two papers. The health of our oceans (SDG 14) and global terrestrial biodiversity (SDG 15) also find their way into the top five, with the third ranked paper discussing increasing vulnerability to sea level rise and coastal flooding, while the fourth ranked paper examines the potential of global reforestation to mitigate the effects of climate change. Rounding out the top five, a global study between 1990-2017 analyzed the health effects linked to dietary risks (SDG 3). Together, these papers reflect the many connections among natural and human systems by highlighting just how important the life supporting SDGs (6, 13, 14, and 15) are to supporting healthy, equitable, and sustainable livelihoods on Earth.

Of the top 30, nearly half of the global sustainability articles are concerned with climate change, with another third related to health, nutrition, and climate. Papers discussing biodiversity and plastics also make their way onto the list.

Read on for the full top 30 of 2019 and see earlier lists here (January – April 2019 ), here (May – August 2019 ) and here (2018 in review) .

The top 30 global sustainability articles in 2019, by Altmetric score:

• World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency (November 2019) BioScience . Altmetric score: 10,966
• Climate tipping points too risky to bet against (November 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 8556
• New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding (October 2019) Nature Communications . Altmetric score: 7,135
• The global tree restoration potential (July 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 6,356
• Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 (April 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 5,868
• Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers (April 2019) Biological Conservation . Altmetric score: 5,438
• Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable foods (February 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 4,561
• Committed emissions from existing energy infrastructure jeopardize 1.5°C climate target (August 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 4,434
• Concerns of young protesters are justified (April 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 4,349
• Global warming impairs stock-recruitment dynamics of corals (April 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 4,121
• Eat less meat: UN climate-change report calls for change to human diet (August 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 3,861
• No evidence for globally coherent warm and cold periods over the preindustrial Common Era (July 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 3,898
• Decline of the North American avifauna (October 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 3,368
• Earth system impacts of the European arrival and the Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 (March 2019) Quaternary Science Reviews . Altmetric score: 3,290
• Spending at least 120 minutes in a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing (June 2019) Scientific Reports . Altmetric score: 3,249
• Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release (April 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 3,014
• The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change: The Lancet Commission Report (February 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 2,973
• How fast are the oceans warming? (January 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 2,882
• Acceleration of ice loss across the Himalayas over the past 40 years (June 2019) Science Advances . Altmetric score: 2,767
• The 2019 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by climate change (November 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 2,752
• 40 years ago, scientists predicted climate change. And hey, they were right (July 2019) The Conversation . Altmetric score: 2,724
• Ice sheet contributions to future sea level rise from structured expert judgment (May 2019) PNAS . Altmetric score: 2,620
• Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations (October 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 2,584.
• International humanitarian norms are violated in Hong Kong (December 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 2,538
• Four decades of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance from 1979-2017 (January 2019) PNAS . Altmetric score: 2,494
• Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers (April 2019) Frontiers in Psychology . Altmetric score: 2,312
• Plastic Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles and Nanoparticles into Tea (September 2019) Environmental Science and Technology . Altmetric score: 2,305
• White and wonderful? Microplastics prevail in snow from the Alps to the Arctic (August 2019) Science Advances . Altmetric score: 2,253
• Arthropod decline in grasslands and forests is associated with landscape-level drivers (October 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 2,240
• Nudging out support for a carbon tax (May 2019) Nature Climate Change . Altmetric score: 2,190

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The effect of corporate social responsibility on environmental performance in china’s manufacturing industry: the mediating role of environmental strategy and green innovation.

1. Introduction

• Fostering economic development through strengthening economic cooperation with the European Union, bolstering small and medium-sized businesses, and improving the business environment.
• Collaboration in certain fields, such as transportation, energy, ecology, health, and education.
• Encouraging mutual understanding and communication between the peoples of the European Union and its bordering countries through cultural and educational exchange programs.
• The management of migration by working together to enforce border controls, stop illegal immigration, and improve legitimate immigration routes. In order to help partner nations’ development and reform initiatives, this policy is executed through partnership and cooperation agreements as well as action plans that are customized for each nation. Partner countries can make use of European funds, technologies, and knowledge (Anwar et al. [ 5 ]).

2. Literature Review

3. research methodology, 4. research findings, 5. discussions, 5.1. policy implications, 5.2. theoretical implications, 6. conclusions, limitations, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Khoshnaw, Z.; Ali, K.A.A.; Mousa, K.M. The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Environmental Performance in China’s Manufacturing Industry: The Mediating Role of Environmental Strategy and Green Innovation. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 7133. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167133

Khoshnaw Z, Ali KAA, Mousa KM. The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Environmental Performance in China’s Manufacturing Industry: The Mediating Role of Environmental Strategy and Green Innovation. Sustainability . 2024; 16(16):7133. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167133

Khoshnaw, Zana, Khairi Ali Auso Ali, and Kawar Mohammed Mousa. 2024. "The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Environmental Performance in China’s Manufacturing Industry: The Mediating Role of Environmental Strategy and Green Innovation" Sustainability 16, no. 16: 7133. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167133

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Exploring the Interplay between Environmental Leadership, Environmental Consciousness, and Environmental Awareness in Promoting Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Evidence from the Telecommunication Sector of Pakistan

20 Pages Posted: 26 Aug 2024

Haider Ali Shams

affiliation not provided to SSRN

University of Reading

Hamid ashraf, aisha kiran.

Asia e University

This research investigates the interplay between Environmental Leadership (EL), Sustainable Entrepreneurship (SE), Environmental Consciousness (EC), and Environmental Awareness (EV) within the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. Utilizing Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) through Smart PLS, the study explores how EL influences SE directly and indirectly through EC, and how EV moderates this relationship. Data collected from 90 professionals in the sector were analysed to test the proposed hypotheses. Results indicate that EL positively impacts SE and EC, with EC mediating the EL-SE relationship. Additionally, EV was found to moderate the relationship between EL and SE, enhancing the positive effect of EL on SE when EV is high. The findings underscore the importance of integrating environmental consciousness and awareness into leadership strategies to foster sustainable entrepreneurship in the telecommunication sector.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Environmental Awareness, Environmental Consciousness, environmental leadership

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Sana Ahmed (Contact Author)

Asia e university ( email ).

Wisma Subang Jaya, No.106, Jalan SS 15/4, 47500 Malaysia

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A systematic literature review on corporate sustainability: contributions, barriers, innovations and future possibilities

• Published: 14 January 2023
• Volume 26 , pages 3045–3079, ( 2024 )

Cite this article

• Ualison Rébula de Oliveira   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8097-4889 1 ,
• Rodolfo Pombo Menezes 1 &
• Vicente Aprigliano Fernandes 2  

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This paper aims to understand the current research scenario through published studies on corporate sustainability, emphasizing the environmental approach. Methodologically, this research develops a systematic literature review based on papers published in the Web of Science database in the last ten years. As a result, there was an upward evolution of research on the searched topic, with one hundred fifteen publications in the last three years compared to one hundred six documents published in the previous seven years. It is also observed that studies published at the beginning of the time frame between 2011 and 2020 were more concerned with the adoption of corporate sustainability, while the most recent research focuses on new approaches and methodologies for its implementation. And, with regard to its implementation, one of the main barriers is the incorrect perception of senior managers that the results from corporate sustainability must be more linked to the economic than to the environmental and social spheres. As relevant aspects, this study observed that new technologies, currently led by the 5th generation mobile network (5G) and Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), can contribute to the insertion of corporate sustainability in the industrial context. It also noted that, despite being recent, COVID-19 was considered by several researchers as an event to be considered in terms of corporate sustainability.

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1 Introduction

The term “sustainable” has been used since 1978 by the United Nations as a synonym for ecological development. However, with the popularization of other terms in this context, such as sustainability and sustainable development, there was a large number of definitions proposed for both (Johnston et al., 2007 ), reaching, for example, the number of 70 only for sustainable development (Lozano, 2008 ). Discussions continued with the dissemination of the term through the Brundtland Commission Report in 1985 and at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In the business context, some variations and definitions were used, among them are the “triple bottom line” (TBL) theory, suggested by Elkington ( 1998 ), which consists of the balance in equal harmony between the social, environmental and economic aspects of the companies.

As noted above, adoption by a culture concerned with the macroenvironment is not new. Corporate Social Responsibility has addressed the issue for more than 50 years (Bowen, 1953 ). This way of thinking also has several definitions, but there is an understanding regarding the responsibilities that corporations apply in addition to what the legislation requires them to practice (McWilliams et al., 2006a ; 2006b ). Besides, there are several points in common between Corporate Social Responsibility and corporate sustainability (CS), however CS can be defined as the application of sustainable development at the micro-level, that is, at the corporate level, through a short-term concern related to the economic and environmental aspects and long-term regarding the social performance of the company (Steurer et al., 2005 ).

Throughout our research, we observed the existence of several literature reviews on corporate sustainability that sought (and were able) to organize the state of the art of the topic, consolidating the individual efforts of several researchers in a single document. However, we also identified some gaps, namely: (i) the methodological characteristics of the publications, broken down into context, application area and research methods used; (ii) the main research clusters on corporate sustainability, which took into account current aspects, such as COVID-19; (iii) the main contributions of corporate sustainability to organizations, segmented into improving the organization's performance and reputation, partnerships between the organization and stakeholders, improving the organization's environmental management and, finally, improving the organization's human resources; (iv) the main barriers that organizations must overcome in order to adopt corporate sustainability; (v) the main guidelines that organizations must follow to overcome barriers and, thus, be able to implement corporate sustainability, and; (vi) the main innovative approaches in corporate sustainability.

In view of so many aspects, the main objective of this research is to identify, analyze and organize information on corporate sustainability that will help us fill the gaps presented. Through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), the intention is to analyze the evolution of CS within the scholar community in the last ten years, with particular attention on the contributions of the topic to organizations, the limitations and guidelines for the adoption of CS, besides the innovations implemented in the focused period analysis. With the proposed mapping of publications in the last ten years, it will also be possible to observe the main research clusters and recommendations of future research that have been completed, as well as the promising areas within this field of action and study.

The present research is relevant for at least three aspects: (i) corporate sustainability has become a matter of growing international concern (Zhang et al., 2020 ), being considered as a fundamental solution for the creation of a prosperous future (Ikram et al., 2020 ); (ii) eco-efficiency and society should be prioritized to improve corporate sustainability performance, with a focus on encouraging environmental innovation (Xia et al., 2020 )—our research addresses issues related to innovation in the area of corporate sustainability, including the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the research clusters to be considered; (iii) the progress of organizations towards sustainable development has been slow (Baumgartner & Rauter, 2017 ), indicating the need for more concrete guidelines that allow companies to achieve corporate sustainability—our research raises barriers that hinder the adoption of corporate sustainability and presents guidelines for the adoption of corporate sustainability by organizations. Several other justifications for carrying out this research could be included here, but we will end with the one we consider most relevant: filling each of the gaps pointed out in the previous paragraphs of this introduction.

Finally, it is observed that the theme of corporate sustainability can be approached from the social, environmental and economic perspectives; which, in turn, unfold into the most diverse categories, such as environment, management and business, ethics, finance, economics, engineering, among others. In this sense, due to the broadness of the theme, the research was delimited from the environmental perspective. More details on this delimitation can be found in Sect.  3 (materials and methods). Besides, in addition to this introduction, the present research is organized into five other sections, as follows: the next section will address a theoretical review on SC and the main findings in literature review works on this topic; Sect.  3 contemplates the research methodology; Sect.  4 addresses the SLR; Sect.  5 presents the agenda and directions for future research; Finally, Sect.  6 describes the conclusions of the study, followed by bibliographic references.

2 Review of corporate sustainability

CS can be defined as the adaptation of economic, environmental and social factors to the activities and mechanisms of corporate decision-making, together with principles of corporate governance and risk management applied to these issues (Vardari et al., 2020 ), seeking sustainable development while minimizing risk and increasing the value of a company, including shareholder value (Lee, 2019 ). It results from a complementary and connected relationship between the organizational capacities that affect its strategic dimension and the socio-environmental practices that contribute to its operational dimension (Mohammadi et al., 2018 ).

The application logic emphasizes the thinking of the TBL (Triple Bottom Line), which brings together people, planet and profit, within the scope of its business plan. The objective of CS is that a company can positively and simultaneously impact economic growth, social equity and human development, benefiting in terms of risk management and competitive advantage (Cho et al., 2018 ). It is an approach that creates long-term value through the integration of financial and non-financial indicators (Rustam et al., 2019 ).

For its implementation, it is of fundamental importance that organizations incorporate sustainability strategies in their business models, from changes in their governance, in the short term related to the economic and environmental aspects and, in the long term related to the social performance of the company, having focus on results that contribute to a continuous improvement (Ashrafi et al., 2018 ).

In addition to internal issues, CS is seen as paramount to comply with government regulations in the pursuit of economic benefits and improve the company's image, thus restricting external pressures from suppliers, customers, investors and NGOs (Ashrafi et al., 2018 ), being developed from economic development policies and government approaches, through the adoption of policies and regulations in support of sustainable development (Mishra et al., 2020 ).

It is possible to create social value by contributing to the development and well-being of society by carrying out and supporting social initiatives and projects for poverty alleviation, human and child development, equity and social and gender justice (Ray & Chaudhuri, 2018 ). In an analysis of the 20 main materials published in the area Vildasen et al. ( 2017 ) observed that 3 explicitly dealt with the economic-environmental context, 7 with the social-economic and 10 with the socio-environmental-economic context, confirming the link between the areas in the definition described above.

2.1 Corporate sustainability approach

Although corporate performance can be evaluated separately, from the social, environmental, economic and responsibility perspectives, it is interesting that Montiel ( 2008 ) and Bansal and Song ( 2017 ) observed a tendency to converge these elements into an integrated evaluation from the corporate sustainability approach. Also, it is noticed that academic research still diverges from the practice of firms in terms of corporate sustainability (Montiel & Delgado-Ceballos, 2014 ), possibly because of the complexity that corporate sustainability measurements have gained over time from the scholars' perspective. This can be evidenced, for example, in Wagner ( 2010 ), in which the author shows that innovation does not necessarily relate to corporate sustainability in the presented case study. However, it is important to highlight that as higher requirements are expected from clients and firms that operate at different geographical scales, the academic community is highlighting the need to improve corporate sustainability in theoretical, methodologic and operational terms, in order for companies to deliver more integrated results on corporate performance from a sustainable perspective (Baumgartner, 2014 ; Wagner, 2005 ), and therefore be aligned with the global 21st-century challenges in terms of corporate performance and sustainability.

Endiana et al. ( 2020 ) affirm that the accounting sector of a company can promote environmental conservation through environmental costs, and at the same time, improve performance when implementing a Corporate Sustainability Management System (CSMS). Mainly, Endiana et al. ( 2020 ) evidence that allocating appropriate environmental costs through CSMS can effectively improve the company's financial performance. Besides, it is believed that a proper application of CSMS, with the disclosure of environmental activities and costs (e.g., of a land, materials, energy, etc.), can enhance customer loyalty. From the employees’ perspective, Chang et al. ( 2020 ) analyzes the effect of green product psychological ownership on their behavior and performance. Specifically, Chang et al. ( 2020 ) evidence that it is important to establish a solid Green Shared Vision to avoid green confusion, related to the environmental characteristics of a company's products or services, and improve employees' economic performance. From a methodological concern Kafa et al. ( 2020 ) evidences the need for companies to build supply chain management processes that consider the adequate criteria to achieve corporate sustainability.

In a similar approach to Chang et al. ( 2020 ), Mazur and Walczyna ( 2020 ) indicate that it is relevant that the sustainable management of human resources (SMHR) is adequately implemented when the company has a solid view of its corporate sustainability perspective, with particular attention on meeting the firm´s needs without compromising the ability to meet future stakeholders´ needs. Also, Mazur and Walczyna ( 2020 ) indicate that the SMHR should support the company's sustainable development strategy, promote fair treatment and well-being of employees, support environmentally-friendly practices within the organization, and other functions.

From a broader perspective, Kantabutra and Punnakitikashem ( 2020 ) believe that a sum of practices, such as long-term orientation, gradual expansion, risk management, employee priority, innovation within others, leads to an improvement in corporate sustainability performance, because they will impact on the rational use of resources, better working conditions for employees, the longevity of the company and its operations.

Xia et al ( 2020 ) highlight practices that can improve the corporate sustainability performance of a company, in terms of socio-environmental, socio-economical, and eco-efficiency aspects. Specifically, these practices are related to encouraging environmental innovation, redesigning consumers' offer, raising support for institutions and policy measures, and organizing synergetic involvement among stakeholders. In this same direction, Crisóstomo et al. ( 2020 ) identify determinants for corporate sustainability performance. Within these determinants, there are: ownership concentration; companies from environmentally risky sectors; profitability; the firm's size; growth opportunities; and dept.

Considering the global concern that companies should align their corporate sustainability goals to international requirements, Zhang et al. ( 2020 ) propose using indicators from the global reporting initiative (GRI) for the corporate sustainability disclosure of firms. However, Zhang et al. ( 2020 ) assure that there are still challenges because firms in different countries may have a different understanding of corporate sustainability compared to international guidelines, such as those established in the GRI.

Also, Weber and Chowdury ( 2020 ) point out the relevance of evaluating corporate sustainability by separating indicators into four groups: social sustainability, environmental sustainability, green products; and services. With a more in-depth approach, Ikram et al. ( 2020 ) believe that more categories are needed in order to value specific aspects of the firms, such as social sustainability. In specific, Ikram et al. ( 2020 ) proposes nine categories: Corporate Governance; Product Responsibility; Transparency and Communication; Economic; Environmental; Social; Natural Environment and Climate Vulnerability; Energy Consumption; and Pandemic COVID-19 impact. The proposed diverse categories to evaluate corporate sustainability is aligned with the current needs of companies to achieve “real” sustainability, because the traditional triple bottom line of sustainability is not sufficient and may even lead to a business-as-usual perspective, as mentioned by Milne and Gray ( 2013 ).

In complement to this, it is relevant to issue how different perspectives on sustainability by managers can influence on decision-making, whether they are more radical or moderate. About this, Hahn et al. ( 2014 ) assure that the team setting of a company should be diverse in terms of views on problem–solution and sustainability issues. Authors affirm that if teams are dominated by business case-minded (more focused on economic objectives) or paradoxical types (with higher awareness on environmental and social issues), they may be less successful in achieving a significant corporate sustainability performace, while a mixed team may be better in these terms.

Interestingly, Baumgartner and Rauter ( 2017 ) argue that to achieve expected corporate sustainability standards, it is important to explore how management can contribute to creating value for businesses, society and nature. Mainly, the authors defend that performance could be improved through strategic management, specifically looking at its three dimensions: strategy process, strategy content, and strategy context. Thus, this may strengthen the relationship between strategic management and the sustainable development of a company.

2.2 Main findings in literature review papers on corporate sustainability

In terms of literature review papers on corporate sustainability, there are more than a dozen relevant articles, each with its own focus. Precisely for this reason, it is worth giving a brief description of some of them, as follows.

Goyal et al. ( 2013 ) developed a descriptive analysis of papers published between 1992 and 2011 on corporate sustainability performance. The data collected is from the following database: Emerald Full Text; EBSCOS; Elsevier’s Science Direct; JSTOR; Taylor & Francis; and Springer-Verlag. The search keywords used by Goyal et al. ( 2013 ) were “corporate sustainability performance”, “green”, “triple bottom line”, “environment performance”, and “CSR”. In total, 101 papers were selected for the quantitative descriptive analysis. In this literature review, the authors identify that there is a trend toward evaluating corporate sustainability from an integrated perspective, in which social, environmental and economic issues are jointly considered.

With a focus on integrating corporate sustainability and strategic management, Engert et al. ( 2016 ) reviewed 114 articles through descriptive and content analysis methods published until 2014. As key search terms, authors used: strategic; strategy; strategies; management; corporate sustainability; sustainability; environmental; green; eco; ecological; social; socially; ethical; responsible; and responsibility. The databases for this review were Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar. This review shows that there has been an increasing number of publications on the explored research field over the years, that more interdisciplinary work on corporate sustainability is appearing and that there is still a need for more empirical research.

From a conflictive perspective, Van der Byl and Slawinski ( 2015 ) undertake an extensive literature and content review to assess tensions of corporate sustainability regarding achieving a balance between economic, social, and environmental aspects. Authors selected 149 papers from 2003 to 2014 from top-tier management and strategy journals that focused on corporate sustainability and tensions related to four approaches: win–win; trade-off; integrative; and paradox. This review identified that while the win–win approach seeks to reconcile social or environmental issues with economic goals, the trade-off puts these issues into conflict. On the other hand, the integrative approach aims to achieve solutions that balance the dimensions of sustainability and the paradox approach seeks to understand the nature of tensions in regard to achieving corporate sustainability, besides looking into innovative and creative solutions.

Under the argument that there is not much application of theories of firm on corporate sustainability, Lozano ( 2015 ) review the most used theories and how they can contribute to corporate sustainability. Authors do not undertake a specific process to choose literature, and focus on what they believe is the adequate literature to be reviewed on this topic under an interpretative perspective. Results show that each theory is limited to addressing a particular dimension of corporate sustainability, however it is also argued that there could be a sustainability oriented theory of firm that could gather elements of each theory in order to be aligned with and contribute to corporate sustainability.

Diez-Cañamero et al. ( 2020 ) argue that there are no specific instruments that can support an alignment of companies to achieve similarly corporate sustainability. Therefore, the authors identify common indexes, ranking and ratings of corporate sustainability systems to organize a common proposition that could support corporate sustainability development on a larger scale. The documents reviewed in this study were articles and reports that specially applied corporate sustainability systems within 2010 and 2019. The authors did not specify particular keywords or database systems to search documents but focused on specific websites and reports. The authors conclude that the different approaches to measuring corporate sustainability cause a biased view of sustainability, leading to a diminished importance of sustainable development.

With a focus on corporate sustainability and organizational capabilities, da Cunha Bezerra et al. ( 2020 ) proposes a framework based on a systematic literature review under a descriptive approach. The papers reviewed by the authors were found in the web of science database, considering those that were published until February of 2019. The keywords used for the search are related to capabilities, sustainability social performance and social responsibility. Papers were filtered based on the literature review's focus, which led to the consideration of 88 articles. The results of da Cunha Bezerra et al. ( 2020 ) indicate that corporate sustainability is closely related to business strategy and the development of specific organizational capabilities.

Arguing that there is a gap between policy and implementation regarding corporate sustainability, Ahmed et al. ( 2021 ), through a systematic literature review, explores factors that make implementing corporate sustainability policies difficult. With this aim, Ahmed et al. ( 2021 ) selected 107 papers published between 1950 and 2020 in six major editorial groups: Wiley; Taylor and Francis; Emeral; Springer; Sage; and Elsevier. The keywords for the search were: policy; small and medium enterprise; sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility; corporate sustainability; corporate ethics; corporate philanthropy; corporate citizenship; and corporate sustainability responsibility. Results of this review show that adequate policymaking on corporate sustainability is closely related to several business approaches such as the grassroots approach, environmental impact assessment, integrated sustainability assessment, evidence-based practice approach, and systematic approach.

Schaltegger et al. ( 2022 ) highlight the importance of understanding the role of management accounting on corporate sustainability. Within this context, the authors undertake a systematic literature review on sustainability management accounting, based on content analysis. In this review, the 62 papers selected were articles published until 2019 focusing on environmental, social and sustainability accounting found in five databases: EBSCO Host-Business Source Premier (BSP); JSTOR; ScienceDirect; Scopus and Web of Science. This study identifies that the literature shows a timid relationship between the micro-level of sustainable management accounting with a company’s meso and macro organizational levels, which means that there are still challenges with regard to extending sustainable management accounting beyond organizational barriers.

Based on the diverse existing challenges for companies to balance economic, social and environmental goals, Luo et al. ( 2020 ) conducted a systematic literature review on corporate sustainability paradox management. The 141 papers selected were published in high ranking journals dedicated to management and sustainability until December 2019. The authors undertaken a content analysis of the selected papers and concluded that environmental and cognitive factors create tensions to adopt sustainable solutions; proactive strategies are more present in studies related to corporate sustainability and result more effective in the short- and long-term sustainable goals of a company; and strategies to manage corporate sustainability paradoxes deals with complex business scenarios, on the multi-level and multi-stage approach.

From a human resources perspective, Kainzbauer et al. ( 2021 ) conducted a bibliometric analysis to understand how sustainable human resource management contributes to corporate sustainability. This review selected 807 Scopus-indexed papers from 1982 and 2021 on sustainability in human resource management. The review identified three research development areas: green human resource management; Corporate Social Responsibility; and sustainable human resource management. However, the authors highlight that recently, more importance has been given to environmental issues, leading to the need to generate more contributions to human and social aspects of sustainability.

Analyzing the findings of the research in this subsection, it is observed that they are complementary and have different focuses, despite all of them being methodologically guided by a literature review. In this perspective of complementarity, our work will address the following issues on corporate sustainability: (i) historical evolution over the years; (ii) methodological features; (iii) citation networks and research clusters; (iv) contributions to organizations; (v) Barriers to the adoption by organizations; (vi) guidelines for the adoption by organizations; (vii) innovations; (viii) agenda and future research directions. To this end, we will continue with the methodological approach described and detailed in the next section.

3 Materials and methods

Methodologically, this research was supported by a SLR. Its function is to organize the knowledge disseminated over the last ten years (between 2011 and 2020) on the topic of corporate sustainability, thus increasing the visibility of this subject (Meredith, 1993 ) and contributing to the topic's investigative process (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002 ), in addition to providing a historical perspective and the consolidation efforts in this area of knowledge.

According to Gough et al. ( 2012 ), SLR is a structured, transparent and reproducible method, characterized by being an objective, replicable approach that, according to Badi and Murtagh ( 2019 ), can provide a comprehensive knowledge of scientific research published in a given field of study. The aim of a literature review is to identify gaps in the literature (Tranfield et al., 2003 ), as well as to address existing limitations on a given topic (De Oliveira et al., 2018 ). For Wee and Banister ( 2016 ), a literature review should gather the research material in a structured way, adding value by discussing relevant aspects and raising promising paths for future research, based on key and emerging topics (Seuring et al., 2005 ).

In general, SLR begins with clarifying the scope of the research (Agi et al., 2020 ), followed by the objective of the review (Agi et al., 2020 ; Tranfield et al., 2003 ), with a well-defined strategy for data search (Agi et al., 2020 ; De Oliveira et al., 2018 ; Tranfield et al., 2003 ), and collection of research material (Agi et al., 2020 ; De Oliveira et al., 2018 ; Tranfield et al., 2003 ). For Tseng et al. ( 2019 ), SLR has four stages, which, in short, involve the identification of data, the screening of initial data, the determination of eligibility and, finally, the inclusion of data.

Taking into account the notes covered in the previous paragraphs, this SLR followed the steps presented in Fig.  1 , as a structured research protocol.

Structured research protocol for the SLR

In order to focus on the research, the first step started from clarifying its scope and also its objective, which are duly pointed out in the introduction section of this research.

The second step consisted in choosing the database for the research, which in this case was the Web of Science (WoS). Considered one of the main databases in terms of content volume (Abrizah et al., 2013 ), the platform had more than 38 million publications in its collection for more than a decade (Vieira & Gomes, 2009 ). Such information reinforces the reach (De Oliveira et al., 2021 ) and, mainly, the amount of content (Machado & De Oliveira, 2021 ) in this database. Another important point is the quality and numbers of scientific journals published in the WoS (Chadegani et al., 2013 ).

The third stage of the research identified all articles published from January 1, 2011 until December 31, 2020, and the search was carried out through the "advanced research" tool on WoS. As a search argument, the term “Corporate Sustainability” was used in the title and the term “Environmental” was used in the topic section, simultaneously, using the Boolean logic “AND”. As a limitation of this step, it is found that the papers that did not use any of the research arguments in the title, abstract or keywords at least once, did not have their work related to the present study. The number of manuscripts found in this stage was two hundred twenty-one.

The fourth step involved downloading all papers that met the research conditions outlined in the previous step. This material was stored in a folder for later reading of their titles and abstracts. In the fifth and sixth stages, the titles and abstracts were read so that a sorting of the materials could be made, thus discarding papers not related to the topic and inserting in a spreadsheet relevant data from the remaining papers for future reading. Of the 221 initially downloaded articles, 48 were discarded at this stage because they were not directly related to the topic.

Following the technical procedures, the seventh stage addressed the organization of the material eligible for the SRL on CS, and, in the eighth and final stage, the eligible material was read in its entirety, from which the understanding about the CS topic was elaborated over the last 10 years, providing a view of the current scenario, its evolution in the period, as well as opportunities for future research and developments in the field. At this stage, another 17 articles were discarded, leaving 156 articles that were duly cited and referenced in the present research. Figure  2 summarizes this section, segmenting the steps into two macro processes, one for data collection and the other for data analysis.

Summarized methodological scheme for performing the SLR

4 Results of the systematic literature review

In this section, the main results will be presented, starting with the details of the definition found in the collected materials.

4.1 Historical evolution of corporate sustainability over the years

There was a quantitative evolution in relation to the papers published over the last 10 years on CS. From Fig.  3 , it is possible to observe an increasing number of publications in this topic, particularly in English-language journals.

Historical evolution of the quantity of materials published on CS

There has been a growing increase in published content, especially over the past four years. It is important to note that the number of materials collected for 2020 covers the entire year, i.e., until December 31, 2020.

Research on CS has undergone variations in terms of objectives, contexts and areas studied. Table 1 shows the historical evolution of the research objectives over the years.

Even with variations over the researched decade, it is noted that the adoption and evaluation of sustainable practices in companies, as well as issues related to the management of CS linked to human resources, received greater attention when compared to other objectives, as shown in Fig.  4 .

Main objectives and themes related to the researched materials

Complementing this analysis of the historical evolution of CS, one could not fail to address the journals that contributed most to research advances in the area of CS. From the data tabulation, it was possible to perform the mapping shown in Table 2 .

From its analysis, it is important to highlight that the journals mentioned in Table 2 have become a reference for obtaining materials on this topic.

4.2 Methodological features on corporate sustainability

In the reading phase of the selected material, it was found that the research could be divided into 8 contexts, as shown in Table 3 .

From the definition of the context, the grouping of materials began according to their main application area. Table 4 organizes these areas.

Concluding the segmentation, it was found that the research methods used have 3 predominant divisions: (i) empirical studies (Gomez-Bezares et al., 2019 ; Jones et al., 2015 ; Mishra et al., 2020 ; Baumgartner & Rauter, 2017 ; Ahern, 2015 ); (ii) mathematical modeling using diverse techniques (Yang et al., 2017a , 2017b ; Aras et al., 2018 ; Weber, 2017 ; Kucukbay & Surucu, 2019 ; Hu et al., 2011 ; Zillur et al., 2015 ) and; (iii) literature review (Amini & Bienstock, 2014 ; Goyal et al., 2013 ; Kourula et al., 2017 ; Vildasen et al., 2017 ).

Based on these three characteristics (context, area and method), publications on CS were stratified according to Fig.  5 .

Map of the SLR (2011–2020)

4.3 Citation networks and research clusters on corporate sustainability

For the purpose of visualizing and analyzing citation networks in the papers that comprised the study material of this research, we used the CitNetExplorer software, which focuses on the topic of field‐normalized citation impact indicators.

The CitNetExplorer software analyzed 1756 citation links, derived from references cited by papers on CS published on WoS, in the period from 2011 to 2020. Figures  6 and 7 , which were generated from this software, have the following parameters:

Each circle represents a publication;

Publications are labeled by the last name of the first author;

To avoid overlapping labels, some labels may not be displayed;

The horizontal location of a publication is determined by its citations relations with other publications;

The vertical location of a publication is determined by its publication year;

The curved lines represent citation relations;

Citations point in upward direction;

The cited publication is always located above the citing publication.

Network of citations for publications on CS and their connections—extracted from CitNetExplorer

Publications on CS originated from Dyllick and Hockerts ( 2002 )—extracted from CitNetExplorer

Figure  6 allows the visualization of most frequently cited publications (select based on their Citation Score) and their connections (links). It is interesting to note that countless publications from past decades have been used to compose the theoretical framework of the publications of the last ten years on CS, with a significant part of these publications maintaining a citation relationship (see curved lines) with current publications.

In the center of Fig.  6 , we can see the Dyllick’s seminal paper publication, “Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability”, that among the publications that directly address the topic CS is the one with the highest Citation Score index. From Fig.  7 , we can see the unfolding of the work of Dyllick and Hockerts ( 2002 ) in several other publications, expanding the visual information of the previous figure.

Although Figs. 6 and 7 allow the visualization of the most relevant citation networks and their relationship with other citations over time, it is not possible to extract from these figures what are the main areas of investigation, how these areas are related, or even what are the most active research areas. Thus, in order to answer these questions, the CiteSpace software was used. According to Chen ( 2006 ), CiteSpace is software designed to generate an “X-ray” of an area of knowledge represented by a set of bibliographic records from relevant publications. Figure  8 , which illustrates the most active areas of research on CS in the past ten years, was developed by CiteSpace.

Main research clusters on CS in the period from 2011 to 2020

Clusters are numbered in descending order of cluster size, starting with the largest cluster #0, the second largest #1, and so on. In this case, the largest area (#0 sustainability governance characteristics) has the largest number of members' references, being, therefore, the subject that has had the most activity in the last decade.

Of these clusters, one that draws attention is the seventh (#6 including covid-19 insight), which is understandable because the world has reached a critical point of volatility due to the emergence of COVID-19 (Karnama & Vinuesa, 2020 ), which would thus justify the growing interest of the scientific community in research that includes aspects of the 2020 Pandemic.

In Fig.  8 , the total time span is from 2011 to 2020 and the clusters show the most important traces of related research activities. Each dot represents a node in the network, which are the citations. And the lines that connect the nodes are co-citations links. The colors of these lines are designed to show when a connection was made for the first time. Color coding makes it easy to identify which part of the network is old (lilac shade) and which is recent (yellow shade).

4.4 Contributions of corporate sustainability to organizations

A large part of the CS contributions are linked to the improvement in environmental management related to areas close to the organizations, where the increments may be related to cultivation and preservation in high standard environments, continuous control of environmental pollution, protection for threatened plants and animals, implementation of successful environmental protection programs, optimal use of resources and anticipation of possible problems related to the environment (Vardari et al., 2020 ). CS improves business performance and reputation, reducing or eliminating risks and linking operations to results that can improve the common good (Wilshusen & MacDonald, 2017 ).

However, its implementation only has the power to become a rich source of competitiveness if the opportunities related to sustainable development are properly identified (Baumgartner, 2014 ). Integrating CS into the company's strategy is more than a responsibility, being essential that each business recognizes the need to be socially, environmentally and financially sustainable in order to survive over time (Ashrafi et al., 2018 ).

The adoption of CS contributes to eco-innovation, responsible leadership, sustainable and organizational culture (Paraschiv et al., 2012 ), as well as the need to adopt certifications such as ISO 14001 to accelerate the company's commitment to sustainable issues (Maletic et al., 2015 ; Ramos et al., 2013 ). It was also observed the establishment of partnerships between companies and NGOs that defend the environmental cause, generating improvements, legitimacy and value for both parties (Daddi et al., 2019 ; Joensuu et al., 2015 ).

In addition to the environmental context, there were several contents regarding the financial aspect triggered by sustainable practices, such as the improvement in the relationship with investors (Garcia-Sanchez et al., 2019 ; Serafeim, 2020 ), long-term returns in times of financial crisis (Gomez-Bezares et al., 2016 ), creating long-term value for business owners through the exploitation of opportunities and risk management (Kocmanova et al., 2017 ), environmental and social governance activities positively affecting economic performance (Budsaratragoon & Jitmaneeroj, 2019 ) and image improvement before the entire market (Schrobback & Meath, 2020 ).

It was found that both early adopters of CS and late adopters benefit greatly. The pioneer receives all payment from stakeholders in the sustainability market, since it is the only operator. In contrast, late adopters gain an advantage as they benefit from cumulative side effects in an explored and expanded market (Usar et al., 2019 ). Foreign ownership positively impacts the level of adoption of CS, as the pressure exerted ends up being greater culminating in a need for constant training of the workforce (Pechancova et al., 2019 ).

In the internal environment, experiences with CS encourage managers to devote more attention to environmental and social problems (Grewatsch & Kleindienst, 2018 ), as well as the leading role of leadership in their application (Tomsic et al., 2015 ), in addition to promote employee involvement (Horisch et al., 2019 ; Pellegrini et al., 2018 ). The establishment of gender diversity on the company's board, for example, has a significant positive impact on the financial performance of the business (Zahid et al., 2020 ).

The public sector realized the importance of such knowledge and drives progress in sustainability through state-led projects with the development of concepts and legislation, as in the case of China (Liu & Yan, 2018 ). More specifically related to that country's financial sector, green credit policies have increased the CS of banks and/or helped to create a more stable and successful sector (Weber, 2017 ).

Figure  9 presents, in a summarized form, the main contributions of CS, divided into 4 axes:

Contributions of CS to organizations

4.5 Barriers to the adoption of corporate sustainability by organizations

As presented in the previous section, the application of CS is seen as fundamental in organizations of all types and sectors, but there are several obstacles to its implementation.

Among the difficulties imposed, barriers related to the adoption of sustainable practices by employees were mentioned in several studies. Some examples are, the inability to motivate managers with highschool education level (Henry et al., 2019 ), the internal difficulty with managers and other employees (Ashrafi et al., 2019 ; Pechancova et al., 2019 ), the lack of internal understanding (Stahl et al., 2020 ), the lack of human resources management (Sadatsafavi & Walewski, 2013 ) and the wage gap (Gomez-Bezares et al., 2019 ).

The lack of guidance on CS is another barrier in its implementation (Ahern, 2015 ; Baumgartner & Rauter, 2017 ; Deng et al., 2017 ), as well as the different internal perceptions about this topic that can cause difficulty in its dissemination (Nyuur et al., 2020 ). The lack of understanding on the subject also occurs in the process of selecting appropriate economic, environmental and social indicators for measuring sustainability, which has several methodological structures and a wide range of assumptions (Nikolaou et al., 2019 ).

CS needs to be anchored in the economic, environmental and social sphere, but the sources and indicators used, normally, focus only on economic factors, resulting in the mistaken recognition that sustainability is an optional contribution, rather than something present in the company's culture. (Schneider & Meins, 2012 ). Another important point is that just “institutional pressure” is not enough to improve the sustainable performance. The allocation of financial and human resources is also necessary for the practices to be effectively completed (Mishra et al., 2020 ).

Another relevant aspect refers to the communication of the companies' sustainable activities, which usually occurs through the sustainability report. As there is no specific standard for the dissemination of results, erroneous or incomplete disclosure of data to specialists, partners and investors becomes common (Barkemeyer et al., 2015 ; Garcia-Sanchez et al., 2019 ; Klettner et al., 2014 ; Lee, 2019 ).

According to Bae et al. ( 2018 ), another barrier involves difficulties related to the family management mode, very common in different parts of the world, in which the family benefit is seen as superior to the negative effects generated for society and other interested parties. Modifying traditional issues and balancing business performance with sustainable issues is seen as a paradox (Daddi et al., 2019 ).

The outsourcing of supply chains in various sectors, which occurred mainly in the last two decades, to developing countries and with considerable cultural differences in relation to the matrix, are attempts to react due to increased competition and shorter product cycles. This decentralization makes it difficult to control operations, in which they may contain slave labor and the use of products that are degrading to the environment (Lueg et al., 2015 ). The fashion industry clearly illustrates the barriers presented. In addition to being one of the most polluting globally, it has professionals with low level of qualification, education and easily replaceable, also causing labor barriers (Feng & Ngai, 2020 ).

In different sectors and businesses, there are tensions between the various stakeholders (Vildasen & Havenvid, 2018 ) with respect to searching for a joint sustainability perspective. When it comes to suppliers and sub-suppliers, there is a considerable range of factors critical to the success of sustainable actions: trust between the focal company, direct supplier and sub-supplier; buyer power of the focal company and the supplier; the long-term committed relationship between direct supplier and sub-supplier; direct supplier involvement; value perceived by the direct supplier and sub-supplier; subcontractor's ability to meet requested sustainability standards; and cultural and geographical distance between supply chain partners (Grimm et al., 2018 ). Figure  10 illustrates barriers that hinder the adoption of CS:

Barriers faced for the adoption of corporate sustainability

4.6 Guidelines for the adoption of corporate sustainability by organizations

It was found that the search for certifications is a relevant path for the adoption of CS, as they contain basic guidelines for obtaining the titles (Ramos et al., 2013 ), mainly in sectors with high environmental impact (Ashrafi et al., 2019 ). However, organizations need to see it beyond a mere certification with an environmental focus and clearly address the social aspect (Maletic et al., 2015 ). NGOs are important actors for implementing CS in an effective, planned and positive way (Lee, 2019 , Joensuu et al., 2015 ).

The dissemination of sustainable culture from the creation of the position of "Chief Sustainability Officer" (CSO) within organizations is a viable way for its implementation to occur (Henry et al., 2019 ). If the manager has extensive previous experience in sustainability issues, the results tend to be positive in the long term (Peters et al., 2019 ).

As an alternative or complement to the creation of a specific position, investment in training for the existing workforce, the use of local labor, and the improvement of internal processes are factors that assist performance, in addition to promoting a broad and sustainable philosophy (Lloret, 2016 ). Companies can use the leadership of their team members to create a favorable and collaborative environment for the innovation process linked to sustainability, offering employees training, rewards and a system for monitoring innovation performance (Lampikoski et al., 2014 ; Pellegrini et al., 2018 ; Tomsic et al., 2015 ; Yang et al., 2017a , 2017b ). The emphasis on human development and training in the workplace should focus on environmental practices and the exercise of power to transform pollution prevention thinking to promote sustainable actions (Feng & Ngai, 2020 ).

Investment in the Research & Development sector also plays an important role, as it promotes innovative products and modern technologies that improve the efficiency of the entire organization, including the sustainable aspect (Zillur et al., 2015 ). In the same vein, a better and adequate design of the facilities contributes to the internal development of resources and the extension of organizational capacities (Sadatsafavi & Walewski, 2013 ).

The Sustainability Report is one of the most used tools for communicating sustainable practices, which can go unnoticed internally and externally. Its range of information can attract attention from the market and investors (Garcia-Sanchez et al., 2019 ). In this type of document, companies can publish their corporate responsibility policy with strategic drivers, structure for monitoring and implementation, methods for receiving contributions from interested parties and requirements in which executives present true views (Klettner et al., 2014 ). Communication can incorporate other aspects of innovation, economic competitiveness, third-party involvement and education initiatives (Ramos et al., 2013 ).

The design of an open and low-barrier system encourages stakeholder to have confidence in resolving conflicting interests. From this understanding, it is possible to reach a common and beneficial point for those involved (Afreen & Kumar, 2016 ). According to Sukitsch et al. ( 2015 ) its practical implementation can be carried out respecting several factors such as: sustainability drivers; sustainability strategies; sustainability issues; integration into the main business; organizational areas in question; motivators for a sustainable business scenario; stakeholder involvement; and methods for sustainability management and measurement/evaluation.

Involving direct suppliers in building sustainable policies is paramount, as they are points of contact with sub-suppliers that will impact the construction of a final product (Grimm et al., 2016 ). Considering relationships and assessing suppliers' commitment to subcontractors is essential for the success of focus companies, as alignment of perceptions about sustainability among the various supply chain partners is necessary (Grimm et al., 2018 ), even if it generates costs for the final company (Smith, 2013 ).

Finally, Lozano ( 2015 ) highlights that, internally, leadership and the business case are the most important motivators to catalyze CS, while the most relevant external drivers are related to the reputation, demands and expectations of customers and regulation/legislation.

4.7 Innovations on corporate sustainability

In addition to the guidelines, the analyzed documents detailed innovative approaches to review the adoption and measurement of this topic. Table 5 highlights the main ones:

Innovations in segmented markets were also observed, such as exploring the sustainability performance of Chinese banks (Weber, 2017 ), creating an index to measure CS in the cruise industry (Bonilla-Priego et al., 2014 ), the proposition of 5 radical models to examine the sustainability rate of Japanese industrial sectors (Sueyoshi & Goto, 2014 ), identification of 87 sustainability-related indicators for the fashion industry (Kozlowski et al., 2015 ), a tool for analyzing the dimensions of sustainability in Ecuadorian cooperatives (Alcivar et al., 2020 ), sustainable innovation model for energy companies (de Almeida & de Melo, 2017 ), an analytical scheme for the generation and capture of the value of Mexican companies (Lloret, 2016 ), analysis of materiality for companies related to water technology (Calabrese et al., 2019 ) and its adoption by Italian companies in the wine sector (Annunziata et al., 2018 ).

Adding to the list of the previous paragraph, other topics were found, among them the addition of social media to the decision-making analysis process (Tseng, 2017 ), the use of innovation games as a roadmap for the development of value creation strategies (Lampikoski et al., 2014 ), the configuration of behaviors with the provision of incentives to employees in conjunction with human resource management tools (Sadatsafavi & Walewski, 2013 ) and the classification of the types of trade-offs found through a hierarchical structure (Haffar & Searcy, 2017 ).

To conclude this section, the most recent innovation observed on CS refers to the inclusion of COVID-19 as a new attribute of sustainable business practices. Ikram et al. ( 2020 ), believing that after the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations will be sensitized to achieve a more sustainable business environment, developed an indicator structure that has 45 sustainability subcriteria, classified according to the nine main categories (Corporate Governance, Transparency and Communication, Product Responsibility, Environment, Social, Economy, Natural Environment and Climate Change, Energy Consumption and Economy and Pandemic). COVID-19 is even included as one of the research clusters on CS, as shown in Fig.  8 (see Sect.  4.3 ).

5 Agenda and future research directions

This section will discuss the recommendations of future research that were observed in the papers included in the SLR, emphasizing CS pathways that remain open.

5.1 Recommendations for future research that remain open

In the field of Human Resources, the possible connection between sustainability and wage disparity, recommended by Gomez-Bezares et al. ( 2019 ), remains without new materials. Zahid et al. ( 2020 ) studied about gender diversity in business boards in Malaysia, but found the need for a broader discussion and in different realities. In the case of Lozano et al. ( 2017 ), the study happened by segmenting managers' understanding of the complexities and multidimensional issue of CS in Japan, where the authors recommended the development of research to analyze experiences on this topic in the West and East, verifying what can be translated into other territories and cultures.

Liu and Yan ( 2018 ) argued about the need to focus on sustainability projects and failed attempts, so that complementary theoretical views can be confronted with those that were successful in their implementation. New studies are suggested to understand where and when to spend on more sustainable policies, especially in the context of bringing more benefits to shareholders. Tarquinio et al. ( 2018 ) propose the future creation of a system of indicators to summarize the overall performance of the businesses, with the aim of providing a valuable view of the information in sustainability reports.

The macro-environmental issue also has open studies, mainly in climate change and global warming, topics suggested by Linnenluecke and Griffiths ( 2013 ), as well as the use of Smart Technologies to assist CS (Hack & Berg, 2014 ; Saunila et al., 2019 ). Table 6 includes the main recommendations found in the analyzed materials:

5.2 Recommendations of relevant future research

Through the insertion of new technologies in the industrial context, at a time led by 5G together with Industry 4.0, there are several possibilities for their insertion in the context of CS. According to Seele ( 2017 ), it will be possible to predict most of the problems related to sustainability and not just analyze what has already been published. The opportunity for studies in this area is relevant, as the use of Big Data as a complementary element to traditional approaches has gained relevance in recent years (Bala et al., 2015 ; Weber, 2017 ; Serafeim, 2020 ).

Studies related to consumer perception regarding CS are lacking, since the analyzed materials contribute to internal understanding, whether with employees or suppliers. The study by Stolz and Bautista ( 2015 ) addresses the external perception, but related to audiences belonging to a segmented age group and location, as well as the material by Tomsic et al. ( 2015 ), which also analyzes the economic issues of small and medium-sized companies. With the growing concern about sustainable development, it is an opportunity to understand what consumers see of value when choosing certain brands, checking if the sustainable issue is taken into account, as suggested by Jones et al. ( 2017 ).

It was found in the review that issues related to Human Resources are predominant for the application of CS (Gomez-Bezares et al., 2019 ; Lueg et al., 2015 ; Zahid et al., 2020 ). Therefore studies that help better forms of engagement, diversity, perception, reward and leadership of employees will bring valuable information for the adoption of sustainable practices, inserting them into the organization's culture. People must understand the new business values clearly, with respect to the sustainable concerns, so that, based on their interpretation, they practice in their daily lives.

There are also difficulties reported in the analysis of Sustainability Reports, many of them incompatible with what was expected by partners and investors, which demonstrate the gaps and the possibility of improving this essential instrument of communication and accountability of sustainable practices (Barkemeyer et al., 2015 ; Jones et al., 2017 ; Manning et al., 2019 ; Mishra et al., 2020 ; Mohammadi et al., 2018 ). Its total or partial standardization can generate an even greater contribution to the company's value and, consequently, brand positioning in highly competitive markets.

Another critical gap to be investigated is related to the circular economy suggested by Daddi et al. ( 2019 ) in other sectors besides the production of paper, fashion and leather because such a topic becomes increasingly relevant not only in relation to suppliers but also to the society in general and to NGOs linked to the environment, as the authors themselves cite.

6 Conclusion

To achieve the objectives of the present research, 221 articles were selected, downloaded and analyzed. These articles have corporate sustainability as their central theme, with a significant part of the material focused on environmental issues. As a time frame, we worked with articles published in the last ten years, where it was possible to observe a growth in researchers' interest in this topic year after year. In 2011, for example, we had only five articles published (see Fig.  3 ), while in 2020 we had 43 articles. Analyzing year by year, there is an average annual growth rate of publications around 27%.

Although a large part of the research contributions on CS is linked to improvement in environmental management (cultivation and preservation in high-standard environments, continuous control of environmental pollution, protection for threatened plants and animals, implementation of successful environmental protection programs, optimal use of resources and anticipation of possible problems related to the environment), many other relevant approaches were observed, such as improving performance and business reputation, interaction with producers and stakeholders, financial performance, bioeconomics, improvement in the human resources with content related to gender diversity, employee involvement and leadership and, finally, the implementation of CS in sectors that are still unexplored. Specifically, regarding the improvement in business performance and reputation, there is a search for certifications, improvement in risk management, foreign ownership and relations with investors and partnerships with interested parties, of which NGOs, suppliers and the government are present.

Regarding the sector (business segment/type of business) where these papers were applied, the diversity of application areas is impressive, of which stand out those of agri-food, banks, consumers, ocean cruises, aquaculture, oil, energy, manufacturing, fashion, ports, technology, among many others. Concerning methodological procedures, these surveys were, in the vast majority of times, conducted by case studies, interviews, structured and semi-structured surveys and mathematical modeling.

As opportunities on this topic, it was possible to understand the main barriers faced for the adoption of CS linked to the management area, whether in the allocation of financial resources or flawed indicators; the human resources area, with difficulties in its adoption by employees, lack of management or lack of internal understanding; to the topic itself, in the absence of its understanding or lack of guidance. As a counterpoint, to overcome these barriers, numerous recommendations were observed, of which the investment in the Research & Development sector stands out, the implementation of an efficient communication process through the Sustainability Report and the dissemination of sustainable culture from the creation of the position of “Chief Sustainability Officer” (CSO). Alternatively, to creating the CSO role, companies can use the leadership of their team members to create a favorable and collaborative environment for the innovation process linked to sustainability.

With regard to innovations on CS, it was observed, in these ten years of research, the creation of an index for the cruise industry, the identification of 87 indicators for the fashion industry and the inclusion of COVID-19 as a new attribute of sustainable business practices. Even though COVID-19 is a very recent event, there is scientific research involving CS, and is even one of the main research clusters in the analyzed period (seventh cluster, as shown in Fig.  8 ). The first cluster is “sustainability governance characteristics”, with a greater number of references, being, consequently, the subject that had more activity in the last decade.

We suggest that all opportunities on CS reported in Sect.  5.2 of this paper are taken into account concerning future research possibilities. But, if we had to select only one, we would suggest further research on problems related to Sustainability Reports. Many studies have pointed out the lack of standardization of these documents, communication failures in accountability for sustainable practices and information incompatible with what was expected by partners and investors. In this direction, instigating questions on this topic could be: what would be the measurable gain that “adequate” Sustainability Reports could bring to CS? Or, in percentage terms (or any other measure that is more appropriate), how much would a Sustainability Report inspire stakeholders to make positive decisions on this matter? Or, yet, what would be an “adequate” Sustainability Report?

As a limitation, the present research considered only articles published on the Web of Science database. In addition, the search arguments used (“Corporate Sustainability” in the title field, “Environmental” in the topic field and the Boolean logic “AND”) directed the systematic review of the literature to the environmental bias. This direction is likely to be a limitation for other researchers interested in other approaches, such as financial and economic ones. Thus, for future works of a systematic review of the literature on corporate sustainability, it is recommended to work with other databases, such as SCOPUS and with other directions than the environmental one.

To conclude, it is emphasized that this article is recommended for researchers and academics who intend to start or update their knowledge in CS, since the SLR developed here can provide a comprehensive view of the studies on this topic.

Data availability

Not applicable for this research.

Code availability

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de Oliveira, U.R., Menezes, R.P. & Fernandes, V.A. A systematic literature review on corporate sustainability: contributions, barriers, innovations and future possibilities. Environ Dev Sustain 26 , 3045–3079 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-02933-7

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Citizen science and community empowerment a key theme at International Geographical Congress in Dublin City University

The power of grassroots community organisation and citizen science is one of the key themes of the research being showcased at the 35th International Geographical Congress (IGC), taking place this week in the Helix in Dublin City University. The congress, which brings together thousands of geographers from across the globe, is being hosted for the first time in Ireland. The congress’  public engagement programme , which is supported by Dublin City Council will bring the conference beyond the campus to the wider public.

Researchers from six schools in the university will present their work across the six days of the congress, which runs from August 25th through to August 30th

Selected papers from DCU academics being presented include

Monitoring water quality and engaging the community

• Urban Citizen's 6.3.2: the active role of citizens in monitoring water quality and biodiversity in Dublin’s rivers and streams - examining the power of citizen science and community engagement to monitor water quality and how these projects can benefit our society, riverine ecosystems and water management.
• Applying citizen science to monitoring landslides on Ireland's shoreline - coastal landslides are a significant hazard to coastal communities and infrastructure. The ACCOMPLISH project looks at the value of citizen monitoring of these landslides and examining the motivations and challenges of those volunteering.
• Valuing natural capital in communities for health - natural capital is the value of everything that comes from nature; soil, air, water and all living creatures. Focusing on the Ballymun area, this study looks at the benefits we gain from natural capital and its importance in our urban centres.
• Occurrence of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Transitional and Marine Water along the Dublin Bay Biosphere - determining the concentration of PFAS, often referred to as Forever Chemicals, in the waters in and around Dublin Bay.
• Persistent, Mobile and Toxic as well as very Persistent very Mobile chemicals in surface water and coastal areas - focusing on agricultural and pharmaceutical sources, this study looks at where the chemicals come from and where they end up.

Planning, history and heritage

• Place and street naming in Ireland: identity, conflict and resistance - examining the evolution of multilingual place and street naming on the island of Ireland.
• Challenges and opportunities of planning for adaptation in an overly-centralised country - how Ireland’s overly centralised governance is affecting the response to the climate crisis.

Sustainability and climate justice

• Including children and young people in environmental decision-making - discussing the importance of giving a voice to young people on environmental issues by exploring lessons from Ireland’s Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. 
• Embedding Critical Climate Justice Literacy in Climate Change Education: A Critical Exploration of Hope, Agency and Resilience

Congress chair  Prof Niamh Moore-Cherry , Dean of Social Sciences and College Principal in the UCD College of Social Sciences and Law, said

“Hosting the 35th International Geographical Congress in Ireland is an unparalleled opportunity for us to highlight the central role of geography as a discipline in addressing all of the major environmental and societal challenges facing humanity today. Most importantly, by bringing together geographers from more than 80 countries around the world, we are harnessing the best global knowledge, expertise and insights to generate real impact for communities locally, nationally and globally."

Dr Jonathan Cherry , from DCU’s School of History and Geography said

“I am delighted that this quadrennial Olympics of the discipline of Geography will  meet at Dublin City University for IGC Dublin 2024. Geographers from DCU School of History and Geography alongside colleagues from related disciplines whose work embraces geographical education, approaches and themes will present our research and host our international colleagues.  DCU’s Glasnevin campus provides the home for this ‘festival of geography’ and our public engagement programme including the ‘Circus of Climate Horrors’ and the ‘City of Care’ photo exhibition, showcasing the lived experience of long-established communities in the Liberties, will be open to the wider university community and general public ensuring that we create an inclusive conference without walls.”

About the IGC

The IGC is organised by the  Geographical Society of Ireland (GSI) and the  International Geographical Union (IGU) .

The GSI is the professional representative organisation of geographers in Ireland. It was founded in 1934.Over eighty years later, the GSI continues to raise awareness of the value and impact of geography in Ireland and beyond, through a diverse range of activities and collaborations. 

The IGU is an international, non-governmental, professional organisation devoted to the development of the discipline of geography. It promotes geography through initiating and coordinating geographical research and teaching in all countries of the world. 

The IGU hosts the International Geographical Congress every four years and also promotes regional conferences and other meetings that further the objectives of the union.

A cross-divisional department spanning

Master of Health Science (MHS) in Environmental Health

Offered By: Department of Environmental Health and Engineering

Onsite or Online | Full-Time or Part-Time | 9 months – 2 years

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• Baltimore Community Outreach and Engagement Projects
• Northeast Market Patron Survey
• Evaluating the Impacts of Energy Options on Baltimore’s Air Quality
• One Health and Asthma Prevention in Baltimore
• Safer Urban Agriculture in Baltimore
• Diversity and Equity Initiatives
• Environmental Health and Engineering Student Organization (EHESO)
• Message from the Chair
• Postdoctoral Opportunity in Neuroscientist/(Neuro)toxicologist
• Postdoctoral Opportunity in Public Health Policy
• Research Assistant
• Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering
• Program Objectives and Outcomes
• Why Hopkins?
• Application Fee Waiver Requirements
• Areas of Focus
• Graduate Student Resources
• Jensen Fellowship
• Postdoctoral Opportunity: Toxicology Policy, Law and Regulatory Analysis
• Quotes from our EHE Alumni
• Track in Environmental Sustainability, Resilience, and Health
• Track in Exposure Sciences and Environmental Epidemiology
• Track in Health Security
• Track in Toxicology, Physiology and Molecular Mechanisms
• PhD in Geography and Environmental Engineering Faculty Advisers
• Master of Arts (MA) in Geography and Environmental Engineering
• Alumni Highlights
• Post-Baccalaureate Program in Environmental Health for Pre-Medicine Students
• Master of Science (MS) in Geography and Environmental Engineering
• Independent Professional Project and Final Essay 
• Internships
• ScM Faculty Advisers
• Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) in Geography and Environmental Engineering
• Climate and Health Certificate Program
• Environmental and Occupational Health Certificate Program
• Food Systems, the Environment and Public Health Certificate Program
• Humane Sciences and Toxicology Policy Certificate Program
• Product Stewardship for Sustainability Certificate Program
• Public Health Preparedness Certificate Program
• EHE Research Retreat
• Aerosol Samplers
• Baltimore Healthy Schools: Impact of Indoor Air Quality on Health and Performance
• Exposure Assessment for Epidemiologic Studies
• Exposures from Oil Spills
• Kirsten Koehler's Research Team
• Occupational Hazard Mapping
• Particulate Exposures in Asthmatic Kids (PEAK)
• Personal Exposure Assessment
• Publications
• Spatiotemporal Exposure Assessment
• Within Baltimore Variability in Pollution
• Current Funding
• Honors and Awards
• Impact of Arsenic on Myocardial Ischemic Injury
• Meet Our Team...
• Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity
• Proteomic Methodologies to Assess Modifications
• Role for TRIM72 in Cardioprotection
• Sex-dependent S-nitrosothiol Signaling
• For Dog Handler Teams
• For Parents/Guardians
• Collaborators
• Dr. Meghan Davis Receives Canine Health Foundation Grant to Study the Health of Dogs
• GIRAPHE Activities
• GIRAPHE Core Faculty
• Summit on Animals, Public Health & Ethics Webcast
• News and Publications
• Eri Togami DVM, MPH
• Steven Sola, MSPH
• The COVET Study Research Goals
• The COVET Study Research Team
• The CoWelf Study
• The Minority Pet-Owner Health Project
• COVID-19 Human-Animal Interactions Survey (CHAIS)
• Climate Change, Pesticide Use, and Exposures
• Computed Tomography and Low-cost Sensor Networks to Reconstruct Spatial Pollutant Distributions
• Decision-making for Risk Management Using Small Data Sets, Mathematical Models, and Heuristics
• Infrastructure for Delivering and Characterizing Airborne Exposures in Exposure Chambers
• Mathematical Modeling of Chemical Exposures
• Meet Ram's Team...
• Modeling of Infectious Diseases
• Exposome Collaborative Investigators
• Exposome Projects
• Exposome Resources
• The Exposome Collaborative @ Johns Hopkins University
• The Exposome Collaborative Background
• The Exposome Collaborative Events and Activities
• Arsenic and other metals: association with cytokine dysregulation and risk of Hepatitis E infection in pregnant women
• Research Team
• Geyh-Bouwer Trainee Practice Award
• Mobile Air Pollution Measurement Laboratory
• Air Pollution and Cardiorespiratory Diseases
• Antimicrobial Resistance and Infectious Disease
• Biosecurity and Emerging Threats
• COVID-19 Research
• Carcinogens and Cancer
• Children's Environmental Health
• Chronic Disease Etiology and Prevention
• Community Sustainability, Resilience, and Preparedness
• Consumer Product Safety
• Energy Management and Alternative Technologies
• Environmental Chemistry, Microbiology and Ecology
• Environmental Engineering
• Environmental Epidemiology
• Environmental Inequities and Injustice
• Environmental Resource Quality
• Epigenetic Regulation in Environmental Diseases
• Food and Agricultural Systems
• Geomorphology, Geochemistry, and Hydrology
• About the Program
• Conceptual Framework
• Land Use and Energy Issues
• MPH Concentration in Global Environmental Sustainability & Health
• Projects and Research
• Recommended Reading
• Research on Land Use and Public Health
• What the Future Must Look Like
• Novel Exposure Assessment
• Risk Sciences and Public Policy
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Toxicology, Physiology, & Cell Biology
• Johns Hopkins University Water Institute
• Worker Health and Safety
• Teaching and Research Labs at WSE
• The INnovations to Generate Estimates of children's Soil/dust inTake (INGEST) Study
• Centers and Institutes
• Environmental Health and Engineering Doctoral Students
• Full-time Faculty Directory
• Postdoctoral Fellows
• News and Events
• Make a Gift

About the MHS in Environmental Health Program

Want to learn how the environment impacts our health? Consider a Master of Health Science in Environmental Health! Part of the #1 school of public health, this graduate degree program prepares students for careers in medicine, research, advocacy, policy and practice.

One of the School’s shortest degrees, the full-time MHS is a nine-month, coursework-based degree for individuals who want a comprehensive understanding of the association between our environment and health. Students will learn how environmental hazards (not only in air, water and food but also neighborhood and social hazards) affect human health at the individual, population and systems level.

A flexible part-time format is also available.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

MHS in Environmental Health Program Highlights

by peers in Environmental Health Sciences -  U.S. News & World Report

Customizable

Electives offered in 5 different areas

Online or Onsite

Online and part-time options available

Multidisciplinary

Take courses across engineering, business, and more

Areas of Interest

The Department offers courses in the following areas:

Courses in Food Systems, Water and Environmental Sustainability cover the factors that are driving current changes in the global environment and how they can lead to adverse effects on human health at individual and population levels. Through coursework and seminars, students will be exposed to a range of sustainability topics relating to food systems, water quality, use and re-use, the built environment and the multiple impacts of climate change. Research interests can include chemical and biological threats to food safety and water quality and approaches to effective intervention/prevention. This foundation can be used to support plans for subsequent doctoral (e.g. PhD, JD) level training or to pursue a career in government or the private sector. Students interested in this area may also complete the course requirements to receive the Certificate in Food, Environment and Public Health .

Courses in Health Security cover domestic and international health threats, including epidemics, natural disasters, technological accidents, and intentional attacks. Students examine major organizations and initiatives designed to prevent, detect, and respond to health security threats; assess the current status of health security preparedness; and evaluate strategies to enhance health security. These courses are designed for individuals who would like to begin careers in public health and healthcare preparedness, global health security, outbreak and epidemic management, disaster response, and related fields. A subset of courses are taught by faculty from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and informed by the Center’s two decades of scholarship and advocacy on health security policy.

Courses in Population Environmental Health are for students whose research interests involve the use of epidemiologic methods to investigate of the impact of environmental hazards on the health of communities and high-risk populations. Courses in this area provide a strong foundation in epidemiology and biostatistics and the pathways through which environmental chemical and biological exposures lead to detrimental health outcomes. These courses offer skills needed for the use of statistical approaches and introduce students to quantitative skills used in epidemiologic research. Research interests can range from the use of epidemiology to investigate associations between exposure and adverse health outcomes to its applications in risk assessment and environmental health regulatory processes. These courses can be used to support plans for subsequent PhD-level training, applying to medical school with master’s-level research experience or to pursue a career in government or the private sector. Students interested in this area may also complete the course requirements to receive the Certificate in Risk Sciences and Public Policy .

Pre-med courses provide the foundation for students planning to attend medical school. These courses provide a strong understanding of statistics and epidemiology. Elective courses in physiology, advanced toxicology, and environmental and occupational disease not only emphasize knowledge covered on the MCAT but they also differentiate graduates from the typical medical school applicant. Ideal candidates present with a strong foundation in the basic sciences and math. The American Association of Medical Colleges site now lists our MHS as a post-baccalaureate program.

Courses in Toxicology for Human Risk Assessment are designed to match the needs of students with research interests that extend from laboratory-based study of the toxicological and pathophysiological mechanisms of environmental chemical and biological agent exposures to the methods for applying toxicology data to human risk assessment and the development of regulatory policy. Students interested in these courses should have strong backgrounds in the basic sciences and be considering subsequent PhD-level training, applying to medical school with master’s-level research experience, or who may decide to pursue a career in government or private sector research positions.​ Students interested in this area may also complete the course requirements to receive the Certificate in Risk Sciences and Public Policy .

What Can You Do With a Graduate Degree In Environmental Health?

Individuals with this degree go on to work in environmental health policy, climate science, government and NGO settings, continuing graduate study, or medical school. Meet some of our graduates. 

Visit the Graduate Employment Outcomes DashboaRD

Alumni Spotlight: Mona Dai, MHS '17

Mona is a PhD student in environmental science & engineering at Harvard University, working on global pollutants including perfluorinated compounds (PFAS).

Jonathan Josephs-Spaulding, MHS '17

Jonathan is a computational microbiology doctoral student at a German University hospital.

Spotlight: Yinka Bode-George, MHS '17

Yinka N. Bode-George, MHS ’17, leads a national philanthropic nonprofit that transforms sustainability to maximize community impact and achieve environmental justice.

Curriculum for the MHS in Environmental Health

Browse an overview of the requirements for this master's program in the JHU  Academic Catalogue , explore all course offerings in the Bloomberg School  Course Directory , and find many more details in the program's Student Handbook.

Admissions Requirements

For the general admissions requirements see our How to Apply page.

Standardized Test Scores

Standardized test scores (GRE, MCAT) are  optional  for this program. The admissions committee will make no assumptions if a standardized test score is omitted from an application, but will require evidence of quantitative/analytical ability through other application components such as academic transcripts and/or supplemental questions.  Applications will be reviewed holistically based on all application components.

Tuition and Funding

Limited number of partial-tuition scholarships

Which degree is right for you?

We have a number of degrees designed to meet various professional and educational goals.

QUIZ: WHICH DEGREE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

DURATION:   9 months full-time, onsite/online;  2 years, part-time, onsite/online

BEST FOR:   Applicants who wish to pursue a PhD or a career in the intersection of environmental and public health

BOTTOM LINE:   One-year program culminates in a short essay

GOOD TO KNOW:   Academic degree focusing on a specific area of public health, typically science-oriented

MHS PROGRAM PAGE

DURATION:  2 years, full-time, onsite

BEST FOR:  Applicants interested in hands-on experiences leading to research careers; good for students considering PhD programs

BOTTOM LINE:  The first year involves classes, while the second year involves full-time research with faculty (based on a proposal from year one), culminating in a thesis

GOOD TO KNOW:  Students get hands-on experience and conduct their own research

ScM PROGRAM PAGE

DURATION :  9 months (onsite) followed by a 7- to 12-month internship

BEST FOR:   Those seeking a career in the field of human health and environmental risk assessment

BOTTOM LINE:   Professional degree focused on fundamental concepts and testing approaches used in classic risk assessment processes

GOOD TO KNOW:   Only program of its kind in the U.S. Students completing the program can also earn the Certificate in Risk Sciences and Public Policy .

MS PROGRAM PAGE

DURATION:   1.5 years full-time (onsite)

BEST FOR:   Applicants with prior coursework in basic sciences who want a career in occupational health

BOTTOM LINE:   Designed to prepare students to pass the Certified Industrial Hygienist Examination

GOOD TO KNOW:   Complete an internship between years one and two to get work experience in industrial hygiene . This program is administered by the Whiting School of Engineering, but all classes are offered through the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

MSOEH PROGRAM PAGE

DURATION:   up to 5 years part-time (hybrid)

BEST FOR:   Professionals currently working in the field who want to advance their career in occupational health

GOOD TO KNOW:   Flexible format; complete independent project at your place of employment . This program is administered by the Whiting School of Engineering’s Engineering for Professionals program, but all classes are offered through the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Questions about the program? We're happy to help. [email protected]