Sustainability and Business at a Crossroads: The Idea of Positive Investments in Creating Shared Value

Abstract

In this chapter, I engage with two leading and complementary contemporary theories of economic and business sustainability – the macroeconomic concept of sustainability as an intergenerational equity of transferring wealth from present to future generations, and the microeconomic approach of Creating Shared Value that offers new ways of connecting business strategy, economic growth and social prosperity. In both theories, I explore the idea of positive investments and their innovative distributive strategies that pursue sustainable long-term growth and offer solutions to existing and future economic, societal and environmental risks. These approaches re-envision the way we can think of and measure sustainable development at national and corporate levels, prompting governments, local communities, investors, citizens, and businesses to find novel forms of participation and collaboration in global and interconnected markets.