Balancing product and process sustainability against business profitability: sustainability as a competitive strategy in the property development process

Abstract

This paper explores the activities of two UK-based property development companies that have integrated sustainability into their business models as a source of competitive advantage in response to an evolving public sector sustainability agenda. These companies have combined different individual competencies and developed new routines and business practices that provide them with distinctiveness in the marketplace. These new routines represent entrepreneurial behaviour constructed around the identifi cation of profi table market niches based on values derived from incorporating sustainability into private sector business models. This incorporation requires the development of a framework for balancing sustainability and related value systems against more mainstream concerns with maximizing profi tability. This paper identifi es this framework and explores the ways in which these fi rms have developed a discursive formation of profi t and value that is used to balance the tensions that exist in a business model formulated around balancing a double bottom line.

Teaching Sustainability through Traditional Wisdom:A Conceptual Framework for Business Studies

“…Instead of being an appropriate market mechanism for creating human satisfaction, consumption has become a central cause of unsustainability, in both environmental and human terms'. The literature focuses on the need for corporates to usher in the path of sustainability 6,8,[11][12][13][14][15] . The motive to choose the path of business sustainability is both due to the self-interest concern and altruism [16][17] .…”

On Sustainable Property Development – The Case of Budapest

“…The argument concerns how the extra profits reaped from long-term investments could be used to generate sustainability in other than economic terms too [16]. For example, the project developer invests in bus stops and in more green features.…”

“…Fortunately it is increasingly recognised that sustainable property development and investment can give the corporation or firm a competitive advantage [13,16,18,19]. This is furthermore bound to be reflected in the property value.…”

Sustainable Development of the Built Environment: The Role of the Residential/Housing Sector

“…Going back to the investment perspectives, following Bryson and Lombardi (2009) the two contrasting ideal types of residential development projects in cities may be summarised depending on whether the goal is maximising short-term profits or reinvesting the extra profits onto sustainability of the project:…”

“…Nonetheless, the economic dimension is prioritised following ideas outlined by Bryson and Lombardi (2009): the message here is to reinvest the profits made and also regulate the property market in order to eventually obtain the resources required for improving the other sectors of 'the sustainability cake'. The context matters, in other words, a locally tailored fit of the model of ecological, environmental, social, cultural, financial and economical sustainability is necessary.…”