Abstract
Sustainability increasingly shapes how organisations operate, compete, and maintain relevance in changing economic and societal conditions. This chapter establishes the foundational concepts needed to understand sustainability in a business context, extending beyond slogans and compliance-driven interpretations. It explains why sustainability carries strategic importance, how the environmental, social, and economic pillars interact, the function of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) as an assessment and disclosure framework, the way double materiality connects organisational impact with financial risk and opportunity, and the influence of mindset in turning intention into action. Grounded in real organisational decisions and systems, the chapter offers a clear point of departure for navigating the complexity explored in later chapters.