Sustainability-Oriented Cost Management Tools and Big Data Analytics: An Organizing Framework for Enhancing Sustainable Decision Making

In this chapter we will propose a conceptual framework of big-data-driven, sustainable decisions, which can be structured according to two pillars. The first describes three types of different sustainable decisions that can be impacted on satisfying stakeholders' needs (regulatory compliance and eco- efficiency decisions, risk management and sustainable investment decisions, and social benefits/costs analysis). The second emphasizes the sustainability triangle approach adopted. Contextual integration of the three characteristics (economic, ecological, and social) in the sustainability triangle requires the simultaneous accounting for improving of the three domains of sustainability (eco-efficiency, socio-efficiency, and eco-justice). These three domains of sustainability management can be met by systematic efforts to act in an eco- and socio-effective as well as in an eco- and socio-efficient manner.