Sustainability / Sustainable

The term 'Sustainability' was first introduced in the Baldrige Glossary in 2005.

Sustainability/Sustainable (Organizational)

The term “sustainability” refers to your organization’s ability to address current organizational needs and to have the agility and strategic management to prepare successfully for your future organizational, market, and operating environment. Both external and internal factors need to be considered. The specific combination of factors might include industry-wide and organization-specific components.

Sustainability considerations might include workforce capability and capacity, resource availability, technology, knowledge, core competencies, work systems, facilities, and equipment. Sustainability might be affected by changes in the marketplace and customer preferences, changes in the financial markets, and changes in the legal and regulatory environment. In addition, sustainability has a component related to day-to-day preparedness for real-time or short-term emergencies.

In the context of the Baldrige Criteria, the impact of your organization’s products and operations on society and the contributions you make to the well-being of environmental, social, and economic systems are part of your organization’s overall societal responsibilities. Whether and how your organization addresses such considerations also may affect its sustainability. 11

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Baldrige Glossary - Sustainability