According to Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, in the article “Creating Shared value” a business should be focusing on the relationship between society and their economic progress (Porter & Kramer, 2011). In order to be successful, a business needs to create values for not only their shareholders but society as a whole. Several companies consider environmental concerns just as important as social and economic issues, so implementing sustainable tactics may involve additional processes to the organization’s operations but it could yield to better returns. Currently, they see the importance of combining sustainability measures and business practice for the purpose of balancing the three bottom line: People, Planet, and Profit. This is why Umicore, a global materials technology and recycling company, strategically built their business model focusing on a sustainable procurement and engagement with the local communities with the belief that this is the way to success. As stated before the purpose of this research is to investigate how Umicore is implementing a sustainable business focus in creating shared value.

How are they implementing the sustainability vision?

What results they obtained on the “three bottom lines”?

What role does technology play in sustainability and innovation for Umicore?

Abstract

Sustainability development is an emerging topic in local and global organizations. The final goal of many companies is to make possible the balance between people, planet and profits. This research study investigated how Umicore is implementing the sustainability vision, the results on the three bottom lines and what role technology plays to achieve this vision. The method used was Case Study Research method using information from the annual report from 2014 and 2015. This research study also analyzed the three different ways that Umicore created shared value; by creating new products, redefining value chain and local clusters. Also, the GRI guideline identifies if Umicore is including the requirements for sustainability reports. Our study demonstrates how Umicore has successfully created shared value and how they followed the GRI guidelines in reporting their sustainability progress.