Ethical behaviour in companies is built on principles, rules, values and resources. As integrative ethics, the macro level ensures a long-term and sustainable orientation of the company in the context of business ethics. The macro level ensures that the company can change its role from “expactant” to “creator” with regard to corporate ethics. The mezzo level prevents unethical behaviour in companies by offering them the opportunity to reflect on their own behaviour in the context of (government) guidelines. Finally, the micro level is considered essential. It creates the systemic preconditions for companies to be able to fulfil their ethical duties and take responsibility for their actions. Partnerships and networks play a central role in this context. Against this background, the existence of a regulatory framework, the measurement of ethical corporate behaviour with the help of standards and reporting, the existence of a sustainable corporate mission statement as well as the availability of necessary resources and the documentation of sustainable behaviour in the company can be derived from the literature as central success factors for the implementation of ethical standards in companies. These factors are compared by means of empirical research with a focus on the packaging industry in Germany, Switzerland and Austria so that the existence of a guiding regulatory framework in society and a sustainable corporate mission statement emerge as the final and particularly relevant characteristics for an ethically-sustainable company, the referencing of one’s own behaviour to sustainability indices, the use of the same (in particular the Dow Jones Sustainability (DJSI) and the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE4 Good) indices) in reporting, the reference to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the formulation of the corporate objective and the use of voluntary standards in sustainability reporting.

The term sustainability is increasingly evolving as a buzzword and is frequently used in a manner which is different to its original meaning. Building upon the triple bottom line discussion one can however ascertain that the current social, ecological and economic challenges represent fundamental issues for the corporate context. In this manner it is a matter of business sustainability (BST)/ "Corporate Sustainability" (CS) and the significance for "Sustainable Development" (SD) in an enterprise. SD can therefore be an expression of ethical thinking and conduct within an enterprise which means that sustainability should be embedded firmly in corporate strategies and role models and must be the object of all forms of corporate/political decision-making. In this manner a company meets the requirements of so-called sustainability ethics which represents a combination of ethical thoughts and sustainable objectives. In this regard certification in the company based on the German industrial norm (DIN)/ the instructions of the International Standard Organization (ISO) can help to ensure the implementation of sustainability in the company. However, these activities cannot merely be ticking off checklists but must be implemented in the context of the corporate culture.