I want to explore whether it is valid or even useful to talk about sustainable corporations._x000D_
After 20 years of focus on sustainable development, the concept of a sustainable corporation is not particularly helpful and it may in fact be profoundly misleading. Why? - because it obscures the need for corporations to be recognised as part of a sustainable society, rather than achieving some kind of corporate nirvana divorced from the social, political and environmental reality. It is more helpful to ask whether corporations are ready to recognise that they are one player among many within society - with the demands this would place on them in terms of transparency, accountability and social responsibility._x000D_
The achievement of sustainable development has become the new corporate orthodoxy of many large corporations. It has become a clich to argue that corporations must become sustainable'. The achievement of sustainability' is encouraged, as the ultimate step in some form of corporate evolution. We are failing to recognise that sustainability a process - not an end in itself. An enormous array of instruments is being developed to measure when sustainability is or is not being achieved. For example, corporate reporting has burgeoned into an art form, which describes sustainability' in a variety of ways. There is no external standard applied to such reporting. These descriptions are quite partial and often place the best possible gloss on the company's activities._x000D_
I have become increasingly uneasy about this rhetoric and this paper has allowed me the luxury of sorting out my unease. I will discuss, largely in the Australian context, the current debate and literature and describe the way some global mining corporations are dealing with these questions, and finally, offer some suggestions which might be helpful at the operational level.