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There are multiple benefits for businesses that adopt sustainability as a strategic framework.
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Businesses
Businesses have a central role in any community by providing goods and services as well as employment. Because of this role businesses are responsible for sustaining a community – now and in the future. As pointed out elsewhere on this site economic sustainability is only one part of the mix; social and environmental sustainability practices must be adopted or there will be no possibility of economic sustainability.
According to the Millenium Poll conducted in 1999 which survey 25,000 people in 23 countries around the world the majority of people expect companies to go far beyond making a profit, obeying laws, paying taxes and providing jobs.
People expect businesses to go beyond just obeying laws and to set high ethical standards for:
- Employee health and safety
- Fair treatment of employees
- Elimination of corruption
- Protection of the environment
Opportunities
The responsibility on businesses should not be seen as onerous, in fact it is an opportunity. For many businesses the threat of the Y2K bug, whilst not welcomed initially, was used as an opportunity to replan, reconfigure and upgrade IT systems. This provided benefits over and above nullifing the threat of the bug.
Similarly there are multiple benefits for businesses that adopt sustainability as a strategic framework, which can include
- Side-step future regulations
- Providing a competitive advantage e.g. through innovative products, better image etc
- Creating efficiencies and cost saving that can drop to the bottom line
- Attracting better emplyees and making employees more productive
- Managing risks e.g of energy supply, climate change
- Managing liabilities for pollution, emissions and waste
- Generally future-proofing the business (that's what sustainability is about)
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To find out more about how businesses can be sustainable click on the following link to go to the Econation business pages:
Business sustainability
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