In addition to the economic challenges facing companies, the discussion on sustainable development has shown the growing importance of ecological and especially social aspects as well. A number of methods, which are used in varying degrees in practice, for dealing with ecological and social problems have been developed. Management needs to be able to gain an overview of the large number of instruments, their applications and strengths, weaknesses, uses and limits. The German Ministry for the Environment has commissioned this report in order to provide such assistance. The central questions in this research project were:
Which challenges face companies wanting to implement sustainable development concepts?
Which concepts and instruments are recommended in the literature and used in practice in order to face these challenges?
What are the strengths, weaknesses, uses and limits of these concepts and instruments?
Remarks:
We would like to thank the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) for financial support as well as the project group with representatives from the BMU, the German Environmental Agency (UBA), the BDI (organisation of German industry) and a number of different individuals from the private sector who provided their expertise to the project.

- German Federal Ministry for the Environment and Nature Conservation
- Federal Environmental Agency
- BDI – an umbrella organisation of German industry