An integrated decision-making framework for corporate sustainability

Concepts such as sustainability and sustainable development applied to companies have recently come under the spotlight pushed by stakeholders that are increasingly aware of the negative externalities such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and overexploitation. Several methodologies and tools have been developed encompassing standard, reporting tool, environmental, social, and governance rating tools and frameworks which are often not standardized and increase the uncertainties related to the selection of the most suitable tool or methodology to implement sustainable practices. The purpose of this paper is to design a logical tool, identified as a sustainability decision-making framework (SDMF), that can guide companies in the process of identifying a personalized, and strategic path toward sustainable development. Specifically, SDMF supports companies in (i) the assessment of material issues and key externalities through bilateral interaction with the key stakeholders, (ii) the adoption and implementation of sustainability through a proactive approach and (iii) reporting their non-financial externalities. Furthermore, an iterative morphological matrix was developed with the support of 20 sustainability experts and integrated within the SDMF to support the identification of the most suitable methodologies which can be used by companies to mitigate the relevant sustainability issues.