Sustainability or the Green revolution

Some thoughts on Sustainability in the corporate world whilst I shall be absent for the next week.

DEFINITION CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY.

Corporate Sustainability refers to the business approach by companies to

consider not only economical needs in their strategies and practices, but also

environmental and social needs. It is the opportunity for businesses to improve

their profitability, competitiveness, and market share without compromising

resources for future generations.

Public criticism, enabled by powerful mass media, has made some level of care

for the environment and refraining from dubious accounting practices and from

operating “sweatshops” in developing countries part of the strategy of even the

most die-hard financially oriented firms.

Leading sustainability companies show high levels of competence in addressing

global and industry challenges in a variety of areas:

Strategy.

Integrating long-term economic, environmental and social

aspects in their business strategies while maintaining global

competitiveness and brand reputation.

Financial.

Meeting shareholders’ demands for sound financial returns,

long-term economic growth, open communication and transparent

financial accounting.

Customer & Product.

Fostering loyalty by investing in customer

relationship management and product and service innovation that

focuses on technologies and systems, which use financial, natural and

social resources in an efficient, effective and economic manner over the

long-term.

Governance and Stakeholder.

Setting the highest standards of

corporate governance and stakeholder engagement, including corporate

codes of conduct and public reporting.

Human Resources.

Managing human resources to maintain workforce

capabilities and employee satisfaction through best-in-class

organizational learning and knowledge management practices and

remuneration and benefit programs.

Corporate sustainability performance is an investable concept. This is crucial in

driving interest and investments in sustainability to the mutual benefit of

companies and investors. As this benefit circle strengthens, it will have a positive

effect on the societies and economies of both the developed and developing

world.

One of the critically important issues in sustainability is that of human

overpopulation combined with human lifestyle. A number of studies have

suggested that the current population of the Earth, already over six billion, is too

many people for our planet to support sustainably at current material

consumption levels. This challenge for sustainability is distributed unevenly. The

ecological pressure of a US resident is said to be 13 times that of a resident of

India and 52 times that of a Somalian resident