By Matt Ellis

The term “sustainability” often gets swept aside as an abstract, jargon-laden concept. This dismissal is a huge loss for companies today, as many could benefit from the work behind the word. In its most basic sense, sustainability is a set of values that positively affects the way a business operates every day, both within the company and in the community at large.

Sustainability in business, specifically, has seen many changes in the past few decades. What started as a mission to create long-term financial value has grown to include internal changes such as making an office more environmentally friendly and its employees happier. No longer restricted to four walls, performance indicators also have expanded to include community development, the creation of long-lasting social change and greater collaboration with environmental groups, competitors and suppliers.

Sustainability has a lot to do with transparency, not only in the public reporting of finances but also in how the company manages environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) practices. For instance, regulatory bodies across Europe and Asia are beginning to require more ESG transparency from the businesses they oversee.

Regulatory requirements aside, sustainable business also means money in the bank. Today, investors’ decisions are more likely than ever to be swayed by those companies that value the tenets of sustainable business. As reported in Eco-Business, between 2012 and 2014, money managers became 3.4 times more likely to select a business that factored ESG principles into its corporate direction.

Investors’ desire for data has led to the rise in voluntary initiatives such as the Global Reporting Initiative in which businesses can track their ESG commitments and GRESB, an organization that has created a number of surveys where real estate companies can be transparent about their equity, debt, infrastructure and more. The B Impact Assessment is another such tool. Reporting helps quantify environmental and social impact. The data gathered can then be used to help your business move from a state of understanding to one of action and change.

Though mandatory sustainability reporting standards have yet to be put in place in the United States, businesses should be aware of the inevitable shift towards holistic transparency.