MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group conducted their third survey of managers and executives from companies around the world, asking how companies are developing and implementing sustainable business practices. More than 4,000 managers from 113 countries participated in the survey.

The survey reveals that:

• 70% of companies include sustainability on their management agendas; many companies have placed it on their agendas consistently over the past six years.
• Two-thirds of the respondents said that sustainability was necessary to being competitive in today’s marketplace, up from 55% in the 2010 survey.
• Despite a challenging economy, many companies are increasing their commitments to sustainability initiatives.

This encouraging news must be balanced against another set of data.

While sustainability has made it onto many management agendas, responses indicate it ranks just eighth in importance among other agenda items; however, almost a third of respondents say that their sustainability activities are contributing to their profitability.

“Although many companies are still struggling to define sustainability in a way that is relevant to their business, the attention and investment we see indicate the here-to-stay nature of sustainability for organizations everywhere,” said David Kiron, executive editor at MIT Sloan Management Review and a coauthor of the report.

Forbes noted in an interview with Nick Main, Deloitte’s global sustainability and climate change leader, that he has seen companies around the world take significant strides forward. “I can’t think of a country that’s stepped back on this [climate-change] agenda,” Main said. “Maybe some haven’t progressed as far as they could have, but nobody’s stepped back.”

OK, while the research report has been hailed with headlines such as, “Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point,” I beg to disagree. We’re still losing ground, things continue to get worse and business has failed to move from incremental progress to revolutionary change.