The goal of this paper is to review the intertwined range of conceptualizations that have blurred developing leadership knowledge regarding environmental sustainability. An examination of the leadership literature reveals differential descriptions about sustainable, environmental, and sustainability leadership which are increasingly being used to imply what sustainability-focused leaders do, their interactions, their relationships, and how they address sustainable challenges. While extant research supports that leadership is a critical capability to respond and adapt to constant external environmental and economic upheaval in large firms, agreement about the types of leadership practices necessary to achieve positive environmental sustainability and eco-efficient outcomes is less clear in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). To resolve these problems, we synthesize the sustainable, environmental and sustainability leadership literature by (a) reviewing and clarifying these leadership constructs, (b) theoretically unravelling these overlapping concepts, and (c) developing an integrated framework of intellectual capital and sustainability leadership practices. From a theoretical perspective, this paper seeks to make a significant contribution to the scholarly leadership literature by offering several leadership classifications of skills and knowledge relevant to leadership knowledge domains. Given that extant research has conflated many leadership approaches, this paper builds on the theoretical knowledge of the kind of leadership skills required for sustainability leadership. From a practical perspective, we provide SME leaders with knowledge about the types of leadership practices, behaviours, and activities that will enhance sustainable productivity in their firms. The paper is designed to advance a new way of thinking about existing sustainability leadership by presenting an original contribution that alters and reorganizes potential causal maps, that are potentially more valuable. Whilst most of the leadership research involves large firms, we seek to better understand and inform sustainability leadership in SMEs.

Leadership and sustainability have been researched and examined concurrently. We know much about sustainable, sustainability and environmental leadership as separate areas of research and the leadership behaviours and practices that facilitate achievement of sustainability outcomes. Whilst these research streams have developed alongside each other, we know little about the similarities and differences of each of these three leadership approaches. The purpose of this paper is to review and compare which sustainable, sustainability and environmental leadership approaches are predictive of improved organizational performance with a view to understanding leadership towards sustainability. Through a comprehensive review of the extant literature, we integrate the three leadership approaches and highlight areas of similarity and difference. From a theoretical perspective, this paper seeks to make a significant contribution to the scholarly literature by building on current knowledge and developing a unified framework that combines our findings on leadership practices and behaviours in terms of the types of leadership required for achieving sustainability outcomes. By unifying existing frameworks and clarifying points of integration and differentiation under the umbrella of ‘leadership towards sustainability’, this paper seeks to advance research on leadership approaches. From a practical perspective, a cohesive set of leadership behaviours and practices will be emphasized so that leaders can adapt these to suit the context of their organization, thus helping leaders make sense of the literature to inform their practice and reach sustainability goals. Thus, the main goal of this paper is to identify a range of leadership behaviours and practices that are required to improve the performance of sustainability in organizations thus informing the broader leadership field.