An Evaluation of Corporate Sustainability in Context of the Jevons

The successful implementation and continuous development of sustainable corporate-level solutions is a challenge. These are endeavours in which social, environmental, and financial aspects must be weighed against each other. They can prove difficult to handle and, in some cases, almost unrealistic. Concepts such as green controlling, IT, and manufacturing look promising and are constantly evolving. This paper aims to achieve a better understanding of the field of corporate sustainability (CS). It will evaluate the hypothesis by which Corporate Sustainability thrives, via being efficient, increasing the performance, and raising the value of the input of the enterprises to the resources used. In fact, Corporate Sustainability on the surface could seem to contradict the idea, which supports the understanding that it encourages the reduction of the heavy reliance on the use of natural resources, the overall environmental impact, and above all, their protection. To understand how the contradictory notion of CS came about, in this part of the paper, the emphasis is placed on providing useful insight to this regard. The first part of this paper summarizes various definitions, organizational theories, and measures used for CS and its derivatives like green controlling, IT, and manufacturing. Second, a case study is given that combines the aforementioned sustainability models. In addition to evaluating the hypothesis, the overarching objective of this paper is to demonstrate the use of green controlling, IT, and manufacturing in the corporate sector. Furthermore, this paper outlines the current challenges and possible directions for CS in the future. Keywords: corporate sustainability, jevons paradox, efficiency side-effects, grey energy, rebound-effect.