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Business has a critical part to play in transforming the global economy and society to achieve sustainable development. Many granular sustainability accounting and management tools have been offered. To systematize these piecemeal developments, this paper aims to develop a framework for analysis of the potential role of sustainability management accounting (SMA). The key challenge addressed is how SMA could be extended to support future-oriented, long-term, pro-active management of multiple issues to contribute towards strong sustainable development at the macro-economy level.

This conceptual paper examines SMA within a multi-level, context-action-transformation framework which can move organizations and society towards sustainability. Based on normative stakeholder theory, including concern for mainstreaming marginalized stakeholders, the paper discusses the role of SMA and how it can contribute necessary information to sustainable development of the company and beyond its boundaries.

Guided by a SMA framework linking context, action and transformation and normative stakeholder theory, which considers all stakeholders, the paper shows how the present lack of progress towards macro-level sustainable development can be addressed. This requires a focus on measuring and assessing positive impacts and forward-looking, long-term and proactive management of multiple sustainability issues as typified by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The paper distinguishes between two aspects of SMA – a focus on reducing unsustainability and a focus on transformations towards sustainability. It is observed that there is insufficient emphasis on the latter at present if SMA is to provide comprehensive support to achieving the SDGs. A set of supportive tools is presented as a guide to practice and future developments.

The paper considers how SMA can enable and support transformations towards sustainability at the macro- and meso-level. Different transformational challenges and opportunities are discussed. In particular, the need to balance consideration of time, proactivity and multiplicity, as highlighted in the SDGs, is identified as the central way forward for SMA.

International trade and its effects on the environment are increasingly discussed both in academia and by policymakers. To counter negative effects of international trade on the environment, so called environmental provisions have been integrated in trade agreements aimed at businesses and economies. However, as both the intent and effectiveness of these provisions are controversial, this paper aims to provide an overview of the current state of research and identified key factors influencing their effectiveness.

The authors conduct a systematic literature review of 44 papers on the effects of environmental provisions in international trade agreements on the environmental performance of businesses, as well as economies from 1992 to mid-2024.

The integration of environmental provisions into trade agreements generally has positive effects on the environment while their effectiveness is influenced by their design and several boundary conditions. Alongside the importance of effective enforcement mechanisms, reputation concerns of businesses and lobbyism are discussed as intermediary factors in the design and impact of environmental provisions.

The insights can benefit policymakers to optimize future environmental provisions and advance the effectiveness of policies aimed at balancing the effects of trade liberalization with environmental protection.

Social sustainability is increasingly relevant for creating more sustainable trade policy while societal mechanisms seem to be an adequate tool to ensure effective enforcement of ecological provisions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this review is the first of its kind to provide a systematic overview of the literature on the effectiveness of environmental provisions that combines the micro-level of businesses and macro-level of economies, although the importance for trade in general and environmental protection, in particular, has been recognized in the academic literature.

Given the urgency of corporate engagement in sustainable development, companies seek ways to involve their employees in sustainability efforts. In this regard, gamified systems have gained attention as a novel tool to promote sustainable employee behavior. However, as the research field matures, researchers and practitioners are confronted with a scattered academic landscape that makes it difficult to grasp how gamification can be designed to engage employees in sustainable behavior and to understand how gamification effects unfold at psychological, behavioral and corporate levels of sustainability.

This paper uses a systematic literature review to consolidate the existing knowledge on gamification designs and their effects on sustainable employee behavior.

Studies have explored a variety of utilitarian and achievement-, immersion- and social-related gameful affordances to promote positive behavior- and system-related psychological effects as a basis for employee engagement in sustainable behavior. However, the evidence regarding their impact on rational decision-making processes and overcoming the intention-action gap inherent in sustainability is still limited. Nevertheless, several studies in focused areas indicate the potential to elicit behavioral changes that drive sustainability outcomes at the corporate level as well.

Our study provides three main contributions. First, we develop a conceptual framework that illustrates how gamification can drive sustainable behavior in the workplace. Second, we derive seven agenda points to guide future research on gamification for corporate sustainability. Third, we deduce three practical approaches to use gamification as a strategic intervention to promote sustainable behavior in organizations.

To achieve net-zero by mid-century consistent with the Paris Agreement, companies must urgently formulate and implement decarbonization actions. While previous research has categorized numerous carbon management and carbon accounting actions, these domains have often been studied in isolation. We classify carbon management actions into four categories (inaction, ineffective, supportive and effective) and connect them to carbon accounting actions in a subsequent step, revealing four archetypical patterns of corporate decarbonization responses. The primary aim of this empirical study is to comprehensively assess how companies implement carbon management and carbon accounting actions in parallel and build an understanding of the various factors affecting each other, and how these domains affect carbon performance altogether.

This study adopted a maximum diverse sampling approach to assess carbon management actions in 22 international companies and link them to carbon accounting actions. Data sources included interviews with sustainability managers, field notes from a joint meeting and sustainability reports. The heterogeneous sample aimed for maximum diversity, covering various sectors and headquarters locations, yet all companies have communicated a commitment to reducing carbon emissions. A qualitative content analysis was used to find connections between carbon management actions and carbon accounting actions, resulting in four archetypical patterns.

The study identifies a range of carbon management actions, from inaction to effective action, and corresponding carbon accounting actions for monitoring, disclosure, and internal information use. Effective carbon management actions correlate with comprehensive carbon accounting actions, while ineffective management shows limited use of these actions. Based on these findings, we examine links between carbon management and carbon accounting and identify four archetypical patterns of corporate decarbonization responses.

This study examines the interconnectedness of carbon management and carbon accounting, identifying archetypical patterns that explain their effectiveness in reducing corporate carbon emissions. It provides a framework for analyzing companies’ carbon management and highlights the essential role of carbon accounting in monitoring, disclosing and internal data use. Said framework and conclusions can guide future research and management.