A Sustainability Decision-Making Framework to support the assessment, adoption, and implementation of corporate sustainability

In recent decades, sustainability concepts applied to organizations have become an integral part of society and governments as stakeholders are increasingly aware of the negative externalities of companies’ operations and require them to implement sustainable strategies in their business models. To address these issues, various tools (i.e., ratings, standards and frameworks) have been developed to assist organizations in the transition towards sustainable practices . However, the lack of shared procedures, often not standardized, cause uncertainty in the identification of the most suitable tools to reach this objective. The purpose of this work is to design a Sustainability Decision Making Framework (SDMF) that can support companies in the process of identifying an objective and strategic path towards sustainability. Specifically, the rationale behind the SDMF is to guide companies in i) the assessment of key materiality externalities through stakeholders’ engagement and ii) the assessment and implementation of sustainability through a proactive approach in a way that is tailored to the specific needs of the company under assessment.