Question

what is sustainability and how might corporations incorporate sustainablility practices into their business?

Answer 1

Sustainability is the ability to exist constantly. In the 21st century, it refers generally to the capacity for the biosphere and human civilization to coexist. It is also defined as the process of people maintaining change in a homeostasis balanced environment, in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations.

So, just how can you successfully integrate sustainability into your business?

1. Establish a clear sustainability objective: Corporate sustainability is an achievable goal, provided that organizations plan and include their sustainability strategies within their corporate agenda. As a business, you need to consider the four primary factors necessary for developing a sustainable plan. They include: eco-efficiency programs, management infrastructure, marketing programs and strategic initiatives. You should then appoint a sustainability leader who has the right credentials, abilities and experience to lead the company’s sustainability efforts. Fortune 500 companies have created positions such as Chief Sustainability Officers or Directors to ensure their sustainability objectives are met.

2. Engage your business partners: As a business, you can do everything possible to ensure the drive of your environmental and social impacts within your operations, but you can only advance in a big way if you align with your suppliers, distributors and other members in your value chain. Effective collaboration is the key to accelerating sustainability across your industry or value chain. This collaboration is bound to help you and your industry peers, as well as environmental organizations, to reduce the negative impact of your operations and potentially innovate new processes and products toward this end.

3. Engage customers regarding the need for sustainability: You can only do so much without the support of your customers. If they are unwilling to purchase products perceived to be environmentally friendly or fair-trade products, integrating sustainability into your business will be difficult. You need to engage customers nationally about sustainability so they can make decisions based on sustainable living as well as responsible consumption. Most customers purchase products depending on the price or features, and not whether they are using recycled materials or environmentally friendly packaging. Therefore, as a business you need to engage with customers and convince them to commit to recycling, responsible consumption, carpooling and more.

4. Communicate sustainability goals throughout your organization: It is highly important that you design a way to effectively communicate your business’s vision of sustainability to everyone in your organization. Each and every individual, regardless of their role in the company, needs to understand and embrace that sustainability vision. Integration of sustainability into companies has been difficult, especially because sustainability and corporate social responsibility implementation remain the job of a single person or department within many companies.