MTR is keen to increase awareness and understanding on the subject of corporate sustainability in Hong Kong, nationally and internationally. This report describes what sustainability means for MTR but how do others define it?

For the Dow Jones Sustainability Index , "Corporate Sustainability is a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. Corporate sustainability leaders achieve long-term shareholder value creation by gearing their strategies and management to harness the market's potential for sustainability products and services while at the same time successfully reducing and avoiding sustainability costs and risks."

There are a number of other good textual definitions of corporate sustainability (eg: WBCSD , Mallen Baker etc) but very few accessible visual representations. As a result, MTR decided to develop a series three dimensional shapes to illustrate what of sustainability means for different organisations and how companies make progress towards sustainability.

Some organisations can be characterised as being only concerned with one facet of sustainability, eg: a purely financially driven company. Such organisations can be portrayed as a dart.

In reality there are very few like this - those having an interest in two facets of sustainability can be thought of as a frisbee. An example would be a pressure group campaigning on environmental and social issues. The majority of listed companies can be thought of a rugby ball, primarily concerned with delivering shareholder returns but also addressing environmental and social issues to some extent.