Sustainability as a dynamic capacity: evidence in the sugarcane energy sector

Sustainability is a trend that plays a crucial role in the reflection on the organisational strategy. Organisations and the chaotic and turbulent environment in which they operate can be analysed through the theory of systems as the social system adapts to its surrounding’s complexity to survive. The present study is aimed at this process of adaptation to understand which and how organisational processes are changed when an organisation seeks to become sustainable. It is known that this process of adaption is reflected in innovative practices. However, there is still a gap between the often disconnected practices and the organisations’ strategies. A company’s capacity to make sustainability dynamic and integrated with strategies, transforming it into business ability, is something to be yet studied. Therefore, the objective of the present work is to identify organisational factors leading to the corporate sustainability as a dynamic capacity. For such, a qualitative descriptive research based on a case study will be carried out. Managers of eight different areas of a company chosen for study will be interviewed, including a stakeholder. The soft system methodology was used for data analysis, which consists of a systemic technique to structure the knowledge and, consequently, to enable a better comprehension of the situation studied, including propositions for changes and suggestions. It is expected that the results will reveal both categories of organisational factors and their relationships with the strategy for sustainability and that these considerations will provide enough knowledge to replicate our study with other companies of the sector