Sustainability Controlling – Who will be in charge?

Abstract

Sustainability Management refers to the integration of environmental and social objectives into corporate management systems. It extends traditional management to encompass CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ESG aspects (Environment, Social, Governance) to plan, steer and control overall business success more holistically. It constitutes an area of growing research focus both in the Germanic community as well as globally. With regards to Controlling, two apparently conflicting findings in literature are that 1) Sustainability Controlling is a crucial way to support this growing trend, and yet, 2) Controlling organizations play a subordinate role in overall Sustainability Management efforts. The discussion paper draws on German and international literature to present evidence on the status quo of Sustainability Controlling. Based on this, a framework for the likely development of the organizational responsibility for Sustainability Controlling within organizations is laid out, with a focus on the information provision function of Controlling.