Human capital and sustainability: a proposal of a multidisciplinary approach

Abstract

The concept of sustainability, originally coined to define an environmental philosophy of preservation of natural resources, expanded its explanatory power becoming a more complex construct, concomitantly including a wide range of components of social life. Sustainability was resignified to different contexts ranging from public policies to corporate actions and personal behaviors. Different dimensions of economic, environmental and social life with its various players, among these complex organizations, are integrated in the search for longevity of life. From this perspective, another concept that emerges with equal importance for the construction of this new common future of humanity (WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 2013) is the concept of human capital, a construct comprised by knowledge, skills and competences of people, expressed in the context of organizations, which can play a catalytic role in this mobilization for a sustainable world. This essay foresees the possibility to relate them to each other, sustaining a reflection on the opportunities to improve relationship strategies of organizations to ensure that they concomitantly incorporate sustainability attributes and appraisement of human capital.