Concepts and standards for the corporate internalization of sustainable development

Based upon a conceptual framework related to the importance of corporate internalization of the sustainability requirements, the paper discusses the role of implementing international management standards and highlights the factors which hinder corporate adoption in Hungary. Corporate social responsibility is treated in relation to hierarchical levels of sustainability. A concise and comparative review is given about the related principles and the use of the ISO 9001 quality standard, the ISO 14001 environment standard, the EMAS, as well as the AA1000 and SA8000 social standards and the GRI Reporting recommendation