The number of Russian companies declaring their commitment to the principles of sustainable development (SD) is increasing every year. In this regard, particular interest is the study of approaches to SD, implemented by companies in practice, characteristic of their features and emerging trends in this field, assessment of the degree of companies’ involvement in the transition to SD. Therefore this research aims is to identify the approaches to the interpretation of the company’s SD principles and objectives, typical spheres and areas of activities in the field of SD for Russian companies. As a basis of theoretical framework we used concepts associated with the issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and SD, as well as research approaches applied within this field. The object of the study is Russian companies, declaring their adherence to the ideas and principles of SD. The sample (focus group) included 12 companies of various industry affiliations, publishing corporate reports on SD on regular basis. Their activities in the field of SD, the results of which are reflected in corporate reports, strategies and policies in the SD field, materials posted on the company’s websites became the subject of our analysis. We used methods of qualitative analysis of companies’ activity applying a set of parameters reflecting the economic, environmental, social and management aspects of SD activities. The results of the study make it possible to conclude that, in general, the transition to a SD in Russia is unreasonably slow. At the same time, major Russian companies are trying to follow the global trend and to integrate SD principles into activities, corporate strategies, corporate governance, which allows us to observe gradual transition to SD model.