Examining both organisational environmental sustainability organisational resilience: sketching an initial framework

Abstract

The terms “sustainable” and “resilient” both imply long-lasting phenomena; both have been used to refer to organisations and the environment across various levels of analysis and both are incredibly important for organizations during the climate emergency. In this chapter, we identify the similarities and the differences between organisational environmental sustainability and organisational resilience and, in doing so, argue that they are unique but related constructs that, in combination, can be used to represent particular categories of organisations. More specifically, we delineate four profiles of exemplar organisations: 1) short-term players (low on both organisational environmental sustainability and resilience); 2) survivors (low on organisational environmental sustainability but high on resilience); 3) self-sacrificers (high on organisational environmental sustainability but low on resilience); and 4) resilient environmentalists (high on both organisational environmental sustainability and resilience). These four profiles represent the beginning of a multi-level framework for future research to investigate and unpack further.