Integrating sustainability into business practices: learning from Brazilian firms

This paper proposes a conceptual model to facilitate incorporation of sustainability into business practices, learning from the context of companies operating in Latin America--more specifically, in Brazil--that excel in terms of sustainability initiatives. Five large companies recognized as leaders in sustainability practices were studied using the grounded theory method. The main result of our study is the identification of a number of influential factors, interconnected according to three broad categories--corporate view, organizational structure and organizational mechanisms--allowing a better understanding of the integration of sustainability into business practices.