Sustainability encourages businesses to frame decisions in terms of environmental, social, and human impact for the long-term, rather than on short-term gains such as next quarter's earnings report. It influences them to consider more factors than simply the immediate profit or loss involved. Increasingly, companies have issued sustainability goals such as commitment to zero-waste packaging by a certain year, or to reduce overall emissions by a certain percentage.
These companies can achieve their sustainable needs by cutting emissions, lowering their energy usage, sourcing products from fair-trade organizations, and ensuring their physical waste is disposed of properly and with as small of a carbon footprint as possible.
4. Defining True Sustainability
■ Corporate priority
■ Advancing sustainability
■ Prioritize material issues
■ Explore business model innovation
■ Companies perspective of sustainability
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Source- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/defining-true-sustainability/
5. Two Views of Corporate Sustainability
Triple Bottom Line The Embedded View
06-08-2020 Dr Emmanuel Daniel- Faculty of SocialWork 5
Source- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/defining-true-sustainability/
6. Two Views of Corporate Sustainability
■ TBL is based on an integrated view of sustainability
■ three dimensions are equally important
■ No link between company performance and TBL
■ Explicit connections between company’s performance and its place in the wider
world
■ Companies as existing within society, which itself exists within the natural
environment
■ A sustainable company must operate within economic, environmental, & social
thresholds
■ Sustainable Development Goals
06-08-2020 Dr Emmanuel Daniel- Faculty of SocialWork 6
Source- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/defining-true-sustainability/
7. A Transition Pathway
Thresholds are best set through multistakeholder
initiatives (MSIs)
Sustainable companies employ both incremental
and radical innovation
The pathway to true sustainability is nonlinear
Companies widely influence sustainability
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Source- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/defining-true-sustainability/
8. Thresholds are best set through
multistakeholder initiatives (MSIs)
■ Relevant thresholds must be identified and translated to the company level
■ Setting thresholds through judgment
■ institutionalize thresholds
06-08-2020 Dr Emmanuel Daniel- Faculty of SocialWork 8
Source- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/defining-true-sustainability/
9. Sustainable companies employ both
incremental and radical innovation
■ May undergo a change in their products, processes, and business models
■ Incremental innovation improves performance through changes
■ leading towards substantial improvement
■ Radical innovation focuses on doing things differently
06-08-2020 Dr Emmanuel Daniel- Faculty of SocialWork 9
Source- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/defining-true-sustainability/
10. The pathway to true sustainability is
nonlinear
■ Pathway varies by company
■ Starts and ends in different positions
■ Different paces of change
■ Progress depends on market, technological, and regulatory factors
■ Companies must set aggressive, attainable targets
06-08-2020 Dr Emmanuel Daniel- Faculty of SocialWork 10
Source- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/defining-true-sustainability/
11. Companies widely influence
sustainability
■ Focus on direct control
■ To consider their broader influence
■ Company’s products matter
■ Sourcing from sustainable suppliers
06-08-2020 Dr Emmanuel Daniel- Faculty of SocialWork 11
Source- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/defining-true-sustainability/
12. Sustainability Dialects
■ Discovering sustainability
■ Engaging with external stakeholders
■ Navigating diverse meanings
■ Communicating effectively to the team
■ Corporate sustainability goals into the local functional discussions & thinking
■ Adding corporate sustainability training into the on-boarding process
■ Ensure that employees are engaged with sustainability from day one
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Source- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/sustainability-dialects/
13. Why Sustainability Ratings Matter
■ Ratings are ubiquitous feature of international commerce
■ Credibility
■ Transparency
■ Benchmarking
■ Driving improvement
■ Quality of sustainability strategy
■ Attracting capital providers
■ Resilience
■ Value stream
Source- https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/why-sustainability-ratings-matter/
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