<p>Sustainability has become more interesting to several companies through the last years, the trend attracts lots of attention around sustainability. Sustainable development means different to different people. The most frequent definition that we have found and which we believes compare with our definition of sustainable development.</p><p>”a social change which satisfies daily needs without endanger next generation’s possibilities to satisfy their needs”.</p><p>We have in this project commence from the English word sustainability and establish our own apprehension of its meaning, in the Swedish translation we have chose to call it sustainable development.</p><p>This study is a part of an extensive project which is going on around the world and the material of the empirical study is designed after the international variation.</p><p>Our study on over fifty small and medium sized enterprises has got the conclusion about what they think of sustainable development. We have compiled their answers and then the answers have been divided in three main categories.</p><p>These main categories are:</p><p>• Environmental-</p><p>• Social-</p><p>• Economic sustainability</p><p>We have also described what kind of obstacles which can be considered as standstill’s in the work with sustainable development, we have been summery them in three main categories:</p><p>• Time</p><p>• Cost</p><p>• Knowledge</p><p>We have seen that enterprises mostly see it as an competitive advantage to work with the main categories which is included in sustainable development, but the three standstill’s makes it difficult fore them to reach right up to sustainable development.</p>

Sustainability has become more interesting to several companies through the last years, the trend attracts lots of attention around sustainability. Sustainable development means different to different people. The most frequent definition that we have found and which we believes compare with our definition of sustainable development. ”a social change which satisfies daily needs without endanger next generation’s possibilities to satisfy their needs”. We have in this project commence from the English word sustainability and establish our own apprehension of its meaning, in the Swedish translation we have chose to call it sustainable development. This study is a part of an extensive project which is going on around the world and the material of the empirical study is designed after the international variation. Our study on over fifty small and medium sized enterprises has got the conclusion about what they think of sustainable development. We have compiled their answers and then the answers have been divided in three main categories. These main categories are: • Environmental- • Social- • Economic sustainability We have also described what kind of obstacles which can be considered as standstill’s in the work with sustainable development, we have been summery them in three main categories: • Time • Cost • Knowledge We have seen that enterprises mostly see it as an competitive advantage to work with the main categories which is included in sustainable development, but the three standstill’s makes it difficult fore them to reach right up to sustainable development.