Achieving environmental sustainability: The case for multi-layered collaboration across disciplines and players

The sustainable development (SD) paradigm challenges global production and consumption, and the legitimacy of corporations. In this paper we examine corporate responses to legitimacy challenges posed by SD. Corporations initially responded to SD with “eco-efficiency” and corporate social responsibility. More recently, we observe a process of multi-layered collaboration that we here call “hybridization”. In this approach corporations meld their interests with those of key stakeholders – government, political actors, public, consumers, and non-governmental organizations – in the process of achieving environmental sustainability. This exploratory study describes several examples of the hybridization strategy. We explore how corporations are being transformed by hybridization and also transforming the capitalist system in the process.