Escalating climate crisis activism highlights the potential of self-organised approaches in sustainability to address the disconnect between corporate sustainability activities and globally declining ecological systems. This paper argues that corporate sustainability is a co-evolutionary process of emergence which may enable organisations to address this disconnect by creating a context supportive of emergence within the organisation rather than reacting to pressures from outside. An exploratory mixed-methods case study was used to explore how corporate sustainability emerged in two financial services institutions. This article develops the idea of corporate sustainability as a co-evolutionary process of emergence and presents a framework to assist organisations to cultivate sustainability. It adopts a complexity view and posits that reductionism associated with Newtonian thinking has contributed to the sustainability issues faced by humanity. This study suggests that the paradigmatic assumptions that have contributed to the sustainability crisis must be interrogated to create an environment which is conducive to the emergence of corporate sustainability. Through examining corporate sustainability as an emergent process, this paper sheds light on how businesses can foster conditions in which a self-organised response to sustainability challenges is distributed across the organisation whilst being embedded in the containing system.

中文翻译：

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新兴企业可持续发展的兴起：一种自组织的观点

不断升级的气候危机行动主义强调了自组织方法在可持续性方面的潜力，以解决公司可持续性活动与全球生态系统下降之间的脱节。本文认为，企业可持续发展是共同发展的过程，它可以使组织通过在组织内部创建支持紧急情况的环境来应对这种脱节，而不是对外部压力做出反应。探索性的混合方法案例研究用于探索两个金融服务机构中公司可持续发展的方式。本文提出了将企业可持续性发展为共同进化过程的想法，并提出了一个框架来协助组织培养可持续性。它采用了一种复杂性观点，并认为与牛顿思想相关的还原论已经为人类所面临的可持续性问题做出了贡献。这项研究表明，必须审问造成可持续性危机的范式假设，以创造有利于公司可持续性出现的环境。通过将公司可持续性作为一个新兴过程进行研究，本文揭示了企业如何创造条件，在这种条件下，对可持续性挑战进行自我组织的响应会被嵌入整个系统中，同时又会在整个组织中分布。这项研究表明，必须审问造成可持续性危机的范式假设，以创造有利于公司可持续性出现的环境。通过将公司可持续性作为一个新兴过程进行研究，本文揭示了企业如何创造条件，在这种条件下，对可持续性挑战进行自我组织的响应会被嵌入整个系统中，同时又会在整个组织中分布。这项研究表明，必须审问造成可持续性危机的范式假设，以创造有利于公司可持续性出现的环境。通过将公司的可持续性作为一个新兴过程进行研究，本文阐明了企业如何创造条件，在这种条件下，对可持续性挑战进行自我组织的响应会被嵌入整个系统中，同时又会在整个组织中分布。