It is anticipated that by 2050, the number of people living in cities will have increased from 3.6 billion in\n2011 to nearly 6.5 billion and that 70% of the worldâ??s population will be residents of cities. This rapid\nincrease in people will occur in developing countries (e.g., Saudi Arabia, China, India). Thus, complex issues\nrelated to an increasing level of urbanization present huge challenges but also huge opportunities for\ngovernments, societies, and businesses. For instance, sustainable cities projects can provide enormous\nopportunities with which to create better futures for larger numbers of people via the environmental\ngreening of buildings, supply chains, energy, technology, transport, and waste management, as well as\nproviding a wide range of economic and social benefits. Based on the literature review, this paper presents\na research model that defines the unique roles that business firms play in building highly sustainable cities\nthat thrive based on the triple bottom lines of economic, environmental, and social dimensions to create\nwin-win situation. First, effective private and public partnerships are discussed in the context of\nsustainable cities. Second, the paper argues that enhancing and promoting sustainability strategies and\npractices in a city gives a firm a competitive advantage in both strategy and operations levels, making it a\ngreat role for the businesses. Third, the specific roles of businesses that link them between government\nentities and city residents will be discussed. Additionally, we have developed a measurement tool for\nmeasuring the success factors of these sustainable cities projects. This measurement tool aims to examine\nthe changing roles of businesses in making urbanization sustainable in terms of economic sustainability\n(e.g., financial performance, job creation, and human resources development), social responsibility (e.g.,\nCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) indicators), and sustainable environmental terms (e.g., quality of life,\nand resources efficiency use (recycling, renewable energy use)). Finally, the case study illustration\nincludes specific sustainable city projects already in progress in Saudi Arabia.
Loading....