Sustainability and competitiveness: new borders from the environmental management

Abstract

The article discusses the concept of sustainability in the fields of knowledge of the competitive strategies and of the environmental management, pointing rupture and convergence aspects among those theoretical traditions. The evolution of the perspective of sustainability is analyzed under the optics of the competitive strategies. After that, the authors analyze the theoretical-conceptual controversies of that concept in the environmental ield. The analysis is based on the presupposition that there are converging points between these two focuses, even because the practices of environmental management have been considered an object of study of the competitive strategies. However, for certain environmental currents the sustainability is viewed under perspectives that disable the articulation with activities and concepts linked to the business sphere. The article intends to present its more relevant contribution when discussing the impacts of the incorporation of variables of the environmental management to the concept of sustainability of the competitiveness. This procedure aims to enlarge the notion of sustainability in business enterprises.