The Harvard Business School definition of business sustainability is twofold.
It says there are two things that should be measured for business sustainability. They are the effect a business has on the environment, and the effect a business has on society, with the goal of sustainable practice being to have a positive impact on at least one of those areas.
At the moment businesses are reporting difficulty in recruiting suitable candidates so anything that can help to increase applications is important.
This is where sustainability comes in.
Adobe recently surveyed its US workforce and found that almost a third of people said they would only work for an employer that prioritised sustainability
About a third of employees thought it would boost productivity rates (35 percent), position their company as a leader (31 percent), and open more opportunities for innovation (37 percent).
Forty-three percent thought it would improve workplace culture.
Albeit this is just a snapshot of employee attitudes in one business in the US, there is no reason to suppose that they do not apply to candidates elsewhere.
But it is not enough to just talk the talk. A business must be able to demonstrate its commitment to and active initiatives to make itself sustainable.