Abstract

OLIVEIRA, Lucas Rebello de; MEDEIROS, Raffaela Martins; TERRA, Pedro de Bragança  and  QUELHAS, Osvaldo Luiz Gonçalves. Sustainability: the evolution of concepts to implementation as strategy in organizations. Prod. [online]. 2012, vol.22, n.1, pp. 70-82.  Epub Nov 10, 2011. ISSN 0103-6513.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0103-65132011005000062.

This paper presents a background on the literature and different approaches to sustainability in organizations, linking it to strategic planning. The study was based on Engineering of Sustainability, one of the knowledge areas defined by ABEPRO for Production Engineering. Adapting the concepts of Balanced Scorecard (BSC), there were proposed management guidelines, which promoted the alignment between sustainability and strategy - called Matrix of Sustainable Strategic Alignment (MSSA). In order to evaluate its applicability, a case study was conducted in a cosmetics manufacturer. The assessment of the proposed guidelines implementation was made from the analysis of management practices in the studied organization. Some considerations were made about the results, especially regarding the degree of environmental development inherent to the internal processes. This study pointed out some suggestions for improvement regarding the binomial: learning & growth and the social pillar of sustainability.

Keywords : Strategical and organizational management; Sustainable development; Strategic planning; Social responsibility; Engineering of sustainability.