We hope that all of you are well aware of the concept of sustainable development as it's quite prominent at present. It is one such concept that can neither be called an old one nor a recent one. Wondering why? Well, it is a renowned fact that summits focused on sustainability have been getting organized for a long time now.
But, on the other hand, the idea has gained more limelight in the recent few years after people have been aware of the extent of climate degradation. Leaders from different parts of the world have been trying to get the concept of sustainability integrated into various sectors and the corporate sector is one among them.
Business Sustainability: Why Is It Important?
Before we start discussing the importance of business sustainability, let's first understand what it means. Well, we can say that it simply means doing business in a way that you don't affect the planet and community negatively. This can be achieved by rational management of resources and keeping environmental goals in mind. Sustainability in business is important because it aims to assure responsible, moral, and long-term success.
Effective resource management aids in the resolution or mitigation of environmental, social, and economic issues. It further aims to enhance the impact a business has on the outside world. In return, the company builds goodwill among its staff, stakeholders, and neighborhood.
Businesses are recommended to use good sustainability reporting software to routinely share their sustainability objectives and how well they're doing at achieving them. You might be thinking why right? Well, this openness makes it easier for those outside the company to understand how it supports a healthy, sustainable world economy. Moreover, these performance updates also assist in preserving stakeholder trust.
The Present Phase Of Sustainability In Business
Enterprise integration is the first stage of sustainability which is based on a concept of a company reacting to market changes to improve its competitive edge by incorporating sustainability into current business issues. Market pressures use basic managerial functions and platforms to drive sustainability to business awareness. And, these market pressures might come from a variety of sources.
How do you think businesses deal with such kinds of pressures? Well, you should know that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one solution to these pressures. But, businesses have tried to improve their position in the market by tying sustainability to business strategy. And, in order to do this, the problem must be translated into the fundamental business management terms of operational effectiveness, capital accumulation, strategic vision, and market expansion.
The New Phase Of Sustainability In Business
As you are familiar with the first phase now, let's move to the next one that can be seen in the future, i.e market transformation. What do you understand about the phase of market transformation? Well, it's a phase of corporate sustainability that is based on the concept of business changing the market. It means that the market must undergo a transformation as part of this phase of business sustainability.
Outdated ideas like treating nature as an endless source of resources and a landfill, valuing nature solely according to its economic worth, promoting unrestrained consumption, and believing that permanent economic growth is even possible must be abandoned. And, remember that the decision-makers must play a significant part in promoting this change.
The Bottom Line
All in all, we can say that the concept of business sustainability is emerging with time and its new phases are coming to light. Most people already know about how it's getting implemented at present. But, after reading all this, we hope that you have a clear picture of its future as well.
The United Nations put forth a new of set of 17 universal goals, known as “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” to address the environmental, social and economic challenges across the globe, which was adopted by 193 countries of UN General Assembly in 2015.
These SDGs were built on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which was started as a global effort to reduce extreme poverty, child mortality, HIV/AIDS and other diseases, etc.
In addition to MDGs, the SDGs also include issues such as, natural resource management, sustainable consumption and production, effective institutions, good governance, the rule of law and peaceful societies.
All the countries have a shared responsibility towards achieving the SDGs’ target by 2030 and have a significant role to play locally, nationally as well as globally.
Since the adoption of the SDGs, there have been many positive initiatives.
Many countries have started incorporating the goals into their national budgets, plans/strategies and have set up coordinating structures for coherent implementation of goals across the sectors.
