Sustainability in Business Communication: An Overview Sophie E. Andersen, Marianne G. Ditlevsen, Martin Nielsen, Irene Pollach & Iris Rittenhofer Abstract The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the field of sustainability in business communi- cation by looking at it from five very different angles, which nevertheless form a comprehensive view of the field. The first part investigates how the use of lexical items which express the sustaina- bility idea have developed in business communication. The second part looks at the development of sustainability communication within employer branding. Part three focuses on current trends of sustainability in marketing and advertising and finds that sustainability is not quite as frequently used here as it is in reporting, employer branding or investor relations communication. In the fourth part, sustainability communication is scrutinized as reflections of the development within investor relations communication. Those historic developments show a very clear increase in the use and the significance of sustainability in business communication. Part five then adds a cultural and a politi- cal dimension to sustainability communication and thus broadens the perspective. By investigating those different angles of sustainability in business communication by empirical analyses, explorato- ry studies, literature reviews and discussions, the article aims at drawing a picture of sustainability in business communication that captures discursive manifestations of sustainability, historic develop- ments and current trends, sustainability communications towards internal and external audiences, and intercultural and political implications. 1. Introduction In 2010, Harvard Business Review identified sustainability as a ‘business mega- trend’ that needs to be integrated into corporate strategies in order for compa- nies to remain competitive and survive. In addition, companies need to com- municate their sustainability activities and the financial implications of these initiatives to satisfy the information needs of all stakeholders (Lubin/Esty 2010). Whenever we speak of sustainability, the term needs to be clearly defined. The present contribution takes outset in the Brundtland Commission’s 1987 report ‘Our Common Future’ (UN General Assembly 1987) that defines three pillars of sustainability. ‘People’ refers to the social, ‘planet’ to the environmen- tal and ‘profit’ to economic and financial aspects which, together, are to create future sustainable societies. In line with several chapters of this edited volume, we contribute to the consolidation of ‘culture’ as a fourth pillar of sustainability, as suggested by recent research (e.g. Parodi et al. 2010). The purpose of this section is twofold. Firstly, we look at corporate and in- tercultural communicative practices and how they are related to the pillars of M. Nielsen et al. (Hrsg.), Nachhaltigkeit in der Wirtschaftskommunikation, Europäische Kulturen in der Wirtschaftskommunikation 24, DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-03452-8_2, © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2013