There is a common consensus that anthropogenic activities have remarkable impacts on environmental sustainability with significant consequences on global warming and climate change. Due to the little research on the private-sector impact on environmental sustainability in developing countries more specifically on private sector manufacturing companies’ engagement in environmental risk mitigation, it is in this framework we conducted this study with the aim to investigate how these companies implement the sustainability practices in their daily business operations and the challenges they face.  This paper used a qualitative method of research through interviews and also reviewed  existing empirical literature on environmental sustainability on the basis that a conceptualization framework  was developed and used during the interview process. The main findings indicated that the companies under this study implement the environmental sustainability practices by means of soft measures, formal systems, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in combination with  management models, specific industry standards, and operation-related environmental tools. The significant challenges that the companies faced when trying to be environmentally sustainable were lack of human and technical skills, related investment cost and budget, stakeholders’ resistance to change, compliance monitoring gap, regulatory inconsistency, and stakeholders’ environmental performance requirements. Generally, the implementation of environmental sustainability practices was found to be beneficial to the companies and their ecosystem (Nature and people). The results of this research are particularly important to all stakeholders with an interest in green operations, manufacturing companies’ management, future researchers, and society at large. The authors ended up by suggesting further research in the environmental field

[pt] O atual contexto mundial de profundas mudanças ambientais globais, e impactos dos humanos sobre o meio ambiente cada vez mais complexos, requer uma mudança de comportamento e educação para conter tais impactos e seus efeitos. A sustentabilidade como conceito, representando as diversas visões e formas de conhecimento e de sustentabilidades existentes no mundo, ganha cada vez mais destaque neste contexto, como forma de enfrentamento a estes problemas. Nesse sentido, uma educação para sustentabilidade torna-se cada vez mais necessária para lidar com as questões da sociedade moderna. Contudo, para se propor a isso, a própria educação precisa de uma renovação estrutural, tendo em vista a construção de uma educação participativa, não apenas para alunos e professores em sala de aula, mas também trazendo para dentro do ambiente acadêmico atores, experiências e vivências da sociedade civil, de grupos tradicionais e de grupos marginalizados, historicamente não incluídos nestas construções. Portanto, a construção da educação para sustentabilidade, e da própria sustentabilidade em si, de forma participativa, passa por uma desconstrução e reconstrução do formato de educação majoritariamente presente no ambiente universitário brasileiro, e para isso é importante entender quais são os preceitos, pilares e competências fundamentais que devem servir como base para construção de uma educação para sustentabilidade. / [en] The current global context of profound environmental changes, and increasingly complex human impacts on the environment, requires a change in behavior and education to contain such impacts and their effects. Sustainability as a concept, representing the various visions and forms of knowledge and sustainability existing in the world, is increasingly highlighted in this context, as a way to deal with these problems. In this sense, an education for sustainability becomes increasingly necessary to deal with the issues of modern society. However, in order to propose this, education itself needs a structural renovation, aiming at the construction of participatory processes, not only for students and teachers in the classroom, but also by bringing into the academic environment actors, and experiences from civil society, indigenous and other traditional and marginalized groups, historically not included in these constructions. Therefore, the development of education for sustainability, and of sustainability itself, in a participatory way, goes through the deconstruction and reconstruction of the education format mostly present in the Brazilian university environment, and for this it is important to understand which are the precepts, pillars, and fundamental competencies that should serve as a basis for the construction of an education for sustainability.

[pt] Ao refletir sobre as minhas motivações para ser membro do grupo de Prática Exploratória do Rio de Janeiro desde 2016, senti-me instigada a entender quais seriam as razões pelas quais outras colegas fazem parte deste grupo por mais tempo e continuam sendo bastante participativas. Assim, esta tese tem por objetivo analisar as percepções sobre o que motiva três professoras a permanecerem no grupo por quase três décadas. A partir de suas falas, busco compreender o que significa para elas a sustentabilidade nesse movimento de trabalhar para entender. Para isto, recorro a um arcabouço interdisciplinar que contempla os conceitos teóricos da Prática Exploratória (MILLER ET AL., 2008; ALLWRIGHT, HANKS, 2009), que trata do refletir, do ensinar-aprender, da formação docente-aprendente, de fazer pesquisa. Os estudos de narrativas e avaliação (LABOV; WALETZKY, 1967; LABOV, 1972; LINDE, 1993, 1997; MOITA LOPES, 2001; BASTOS, 2004, 2005) são de grande importância para o presente estudo, uma vez que analiso os relatos de experiências profissionais e de vida das participantes. Apresento alguns conceitos que me permitem interpretar a relação de afeto sobre o grupo de Prática Exploratória e nas relações construídas sobre emoções (REZENDE, COELHO, 2010; ALBA-JUEZ MACKENZIE, 2019; LE BRETON, 2021). Por fim, o sistema de avaliatividade (MARTIN e WHITE, 2005; ALMEIDA, 2010; VIAN JR, 2009; 2010) me auxilia a mapear as marcas avaliativas nas conversas exploratórias entre as participantes e eu. A presente pesquisa se alinha a uma abordagem qualitativa-interpretativista (DENZIN; LINCOLN, 2006). Além disso, como a investigação se insere no paradigma da pesquisa do praticante (COCHRAN-SMITH; LYTLE, 2009), os entendimentos foram construídos de forma colaborativa sobre nossas experiências. Por ser uma pesquisa desenvolvida por membros do grupo, este estudo também se configura como autoetnográfico (BOCHNER, ELLIS, JONES, 2016). Os registros para análise foram gerados colaborativamente em conversas exploratórias (MILLER, 2001), gravadas e transcritas conforme convenções baseadas na Análise da Conversação (BASTOS, BIAR, 2015). Entendo que as percepções das participantes acerca dos eventos narrados durante nossas conversas são construções sociais e culturais que se formaram ao longo de suas vivências e as levaram a se afiliar ao grupo. Nossas emoções e crenças nos levaram ao grupo da Prática Exploratória e nos uniram como uma comunidade de prática (WENGER, 2007). Dessa forma, alguns entendimentos emergentes sugerem que as colaboradoras têm percepções singulares a respeito das suas motivações para participar do grupo e do trabalho para entender que associo ao cuidado-amor que mantemos em nossas relações na comunidade. Cada colaboradora entende a sustentabilidade a partir de algum princípio diferente da Prática Exploratória, gerando assim, a possibilidade de propormos o conceito de sustentabilidades. / [en] Reflecting on my motivations for being a member of the Rio de Janeiro Exploratory Practice Group since 2016, I felt compelled to understand what would be the reasons for three other colleagues to have been part of this group for almost three decades and continue to be very engaged in the group activities. From their discourse, I seek to understand what sustainability means for them in this movement of working to understand. To analyze the data, an interdisciplinary framework was utilized. The following theoretical components were: Exploratory Practice (MILLER ET AL., 2008; ALLWRIGHT AND HANKS, 2009), which deals with reflection, teaching-learning, teacher-learner training, doing research; narrative and evaluation studies (LABOV; WALETZKY, 1967; LABOV, 1972; LINDE, 1993, 1997; MOITA LOPES, 2001; BASTOS, 2004, 2005), which are of great importance for this research, in order to analyze narratives of professional experiences and participants lives; some concepts which enable me to interpret in the collaborators speeches a relationship of affect in relation to the Exploratory Practice group and to the relationship built (REZENDE, COELHO, 2010; ALBA-JUEZ MACKENZIE, 2019; LE BRETON, 2021); Appraisal Theory (MARTIN and WHITE, 2005; ALMEIDA, 2010; VIAN JR, 2009; 2010) helps me to map the evaluative marks in the exploratory conversations between the participants and me. This research adopts a qualitative-interpretivist approach (DENZIN; LINCOLN, 2006) to the investigation of the Practitioner Research paradigm (COCHRAN-SMITH; LYTLE, 2009). As the research was developed by members of the group, this study is also considered as autoethnographic (BOCHNER, ELLIS, JONES, 2016) and the understandings were constructed collaboratively. Data were collaboratively generated in exploratory conversations (MILLER, 2001), recorded and transcribed according to conventions based on Conversation Analysis (BASTOS, BIAR, 2015). I understand that the participants perceptions regarding the events narrated during our conversations are social and cultural constructions that were formed throughout their experiences and led them to join the group. Our emotions and beliefs brought us to the Exploratory Practice group and brought us together as a community of practice (WENGER, 2007). Some emerging understandings suggest that collaborators have unique perceptions regarding their motivations for participating in the group and their working to understand that is associated with care-love that we maintain in our relationships in the community. Each practitioner understands sustainability from the perspective of a different principle of Exploratory Practice, generating the possibility of proposing the concept of sustainabilities in the plural.