Abstract
Sustainable development can be defined as 'trying hard to answer to the present's needs without compromising the capacity to satisfy the future generations needs'. Sustainable development has three pillars, the social aspect, the ecological aspect, and the economic aspect. In fact, the ecological aspect is the most well-known aspect of sustainable development. In a globalized world, sustainable development is always of more importance. First, NGOs and environment friendly people decided to put pressure on the governments and firms shoulders. But recently, the public opinion awareness concerning sustainable development has strengthened this pressure, and nowadays forces firms to behave as exemplary citizens. In France for example, the government has adopted in 2001, laws called 'nouvelles régulations économiques' (NRE), to make it compulsory for CAC 40 listed companies to publish within their financial statements, a report about the social and environmental consequences of their activity.
