Dr Aoife Brophy, Guest Expert on the Oxford Executive Strategy Programme from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, explains that, as sustainability becomes a key focus for many businesses, so too grows the need for new strategic approaches in order to achieve sustainable development goals.

Transcript

So, these different dimensions of sustainable development challenges, they really imply three main approaches, I think, to thinking about sustainable development for strategy and for thinking about strategy in a way that can open up new opportunities.

So, just starting with the first: thinking in systems. The concept of sustainable development itself; it only really makes sense at the level of systems. And what all of this means for strategy is that organisations need to move away from thinking in a linear way.

There needs to be much more focus on understanding connections, on understanding interdependencies throughout existing value chains, and throughout future value chains when bigger system transitions have actually been successful.

The second approach is focusing on needs, and it can be very difficult for organisations, in particular, to understand what sustainable development means in practice. That can be a very difficult problem for many different organisations to engage in, in developing appropriate strategies.

Some of this challenge comes from the fact that many of the sustainable development challenges we’ve already mentioned are very interconnected with each other. So, it’s not possible to really focus on climate without thinking about the impacts on health and on food systems, for example. One way of being able to see the connections between different systems is to step back from those individual systems, to step back from individual problems or solutions, and to focus instead on underlying needs.

The third approach is to engage with tensions. And I think this is absolutely critical for anyone involved in strategy. There are always tensions within the sustainable development goals, where, for example, there is a focus on achieving economic growth, but at the same time, pushing for transformation of entire systems of production and consumption. And some of those system transformations actually require us to step back and to think about: is growth the right thing for us to be targeting? Should that be different in different industries? What’s our responsibility as individual organisations, as entire industries, to society? So, this questioning, along with ensuring that there are enough resources to provide people with jobs, for example, to make sure that we’re reducing poverty. For individual organisations within this complex, contextual environment, it’s really important for anyone involved in strategy to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

For organisations, this engaging with tensions is obviously very, very difficult to do, but it requires having diversity internally in your own organisation. It requires regular processes for being able to engage with different external actors, for example.

And by being able to bring these three different approaches to strategy together – thinking in systems, focusing on needs, and engaging with tensions – we have a much better chance of being able to achieve the sustainable development goals.

The post How Sustainability Impacts Business Strategy appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

In the context of climate change, internalization refers to addressing an external risk such as pollution or sea-level rise, internally. Market forces, social movements, and regulation can all compel a company to address risks it may have otherwise externalized.

Transcript

Internalization refers to when we have a risk that is outside of the company, what is the mechanism or mechanisms by which that risk could be internalized to the company? IE why would the company have to pay for this risk?

Well, there’s actually a variety of ways that a company might have to pay for a particular risk. And let’s look at climate change as an example of how those internalization pathways might play out.

So the first internalization pathway to think about is what we think of as market forces. And these are the forces that the market creates to either make costs for our business or to create opportunities for more revenue for our business. So how does climate change impact market forces? Well, this seawall is a great example of how climate change impacts market forces. This seawall sits in front of a community, which you can see behind me, that is concerned about rising sea levels and storm surges that could flood the community.

Well, that can have an impact on property values, it can have an impact on insurance premiums, it can have an impact on the direct costs that that community has to make in order to fix their homes or their property when the storm surge occurs. So how do we mitigate that risk? We build a seawall. We build a seawall that is high enough that not only it can take care of storm surges and sea level today, but it’s able to take care of storm surges and sea levels tomorrow and into the future.

And we have to pay for that seawall. We have to pay for that mitigation and those adaptation mechanisms for climate change, because otherwise we’re going to accrue greater costs.

A second way is social movements. We see a number of examples of social movements in climate change today. For example, we see protests around the world that are arguing that climate change is an existential threat to our communities, and that we and companies need to address those risks right now. We also see social movements on the consumer side, where consumers might prefer products that have a lighter carbon impact, or they might be looking for products like greater electrification and less fossil fuel use.

The third major internalization pathway is regulation. Regulation really refers to when a government implements policies or regulation to either incentivize or to put a cost on the ESG or the sustainability issue.

So thinking about climate change, there’s a really obvious example of this and that is carbon taxes. Governments around the world have decided that carbon emissions are a danger to communities and to economies. And therefore we should disincentivize companies from emitting carbon. So we put a tax on that carbon. So companies have to pay for more carbon when they emit it, and therefore we incentivize those companies to reduce their carbon emissions.

So all three of these factors – market forces, social movements, and regulation – these are all ways by which an external risk can be internalized as a cost or revenue driver for a company. And so it’s incumbent on a business to really think about not only what is the risk that they’re looking at, but how is that risk going to be internalized into the company? So I can mitigate that risk most effectively based on what kind of a cost or an opportunity I’m going to see in the future.

The post What Makes a Company Address Climate Risks? appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

The gap between climate change impacts and potential solutions gets smaller every year. Today more than ever, climate change poses an opportunity for innovative thinkers to tackle the problem in sustainable and profitable ways.

Transcript

I have to say when I first started working on climate change and business strategy, which is now 20 years ago, there was a real gap between the knowledge on climate-change impacts and mitigation options, in terms of the science and the technology, and the actions that companies were taking.

The reasons for that were mostly systemic: the systems in place encourage short-term thinking and they reward profitability in a very narrow sense. So there was no incentive for companies to pick up on what to do about the climate crisis.

Companies that were successful in doing this were not framed as a success in the business sense.

But now this gap is narrowing and we’re seeing that companies are now racing, in fact, to fill this gap. They’re the ones who are getting patents and who are coming up with innovative business policy options. But this means that the field is actually ripe with business opportunity for progressive thinkers. Companies are now in a position to reap the benefits of being proactive in climate-change management.

What we’ve observed is that once one board member or executive has understood the urgency of the climate crisis and the role of the business, and the opportunity the business has to address this climate crisis, then the change is rapid. Where it was slow at the beginning and painful to come, come up with that urgency and the role of the business. Then it’s like a domino effect, and the change is rapid and this whole system changes. And the whole company is able to address the climate crisis at all levels of its operations.

The post Climate Change as a Business Opportunity appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

Agency theory has large implications for the sustainability challenges facing organizations today. Leaders who understand this theory can support the implementation of an effective sustainability strategy; one that addresses all levels of hierarchy and recognizes corporate responsibility.

Transcript

Agency theory points to the idea that the managers and the directors of the company are agents to the owners of the company or the shareholders. Agency theory has also been called shareholder primacy: the idea that shareholders are really the ones that need to be listened to whenever the directors or the management of the company are making a decision.
Agency theory also has implications both on the company and on society. One of the biggest challenges that have arisen because of agency theory is a vacuum of accountability. Agency theory says that the owners or shareholders are responsible for the actions of the company, and yet the owners and shareholders do not manage the company. That’s done by the management and the directors.

And therefore we have a difference between who is responsible for the impacts and implications of the company. And this creates that vacuum of accountability, where a company can create negative impacts on the environment and society, but there is no one within the company that is responsible for those impacts.

The second challenge from agency theory has been the externalization of environmental and social aspects. If we consider that shareholders, as owners, are the only ones responsible for the direction of the company, then that implies that we need to externalize all costs in the interest of maximizing profit and revenue for the company. That means that if I can put costs up for the environmental impact and degradation onto someone else other than the company, that is good for the owner or the shareholder, because we’re assuming that that owner is only interested in short-term profitability.

Well that has implications where that cost goes. That cost is then externalized to the environment. It is externalized to communities. And this is true across a lot of sustainability issues where we assume shareholders are interested in short-term profit maximization. Then those externalities are, by definition, pushed out of the company onto other people around the company. And you can see in the world of sustainability that becomes a huge challenge for how we convince a company that it needs to take responsibility and take action for these sustainable issues.

The third potential challenge, with agency theory, is that it can have an effect of exacerbating inequality. If a company is meant to bring resources in, convert those resources or capitals into financial capital, and return them to a small group of shareholders, then we are essentially concentrating capital into the hands of a few. And that can be the definition of exacerbating inequality.

Exacerbating inequality can have impacts on the company itself. It can slow growth down, it can make it more difficult to recruit and retain strong talent, and a variety of other impacts. So by exacerbating inequality, by concentrating financial capital, we might actually be dragging the business down.

Shareholder expectations are changing as they understand the impacts, the risks, and the opportunities from sustainability.

Legal precedent is supporting the relationship between shareholders and managers, not as agents, but as fiduciaries of one to the other.

The result is that sustainability is not only considered to be important around companies, but we’re starting to see how it is part of fiduciary responsibility itself. The appropriate and the responsible fiduciary today almost has to consider sustainability aspects. If you don’t consider these material risks of environment and social aspects, in the way that you are managing your company, then you could be violating your fiduciary duty. You could be violating your responsibility to shareholders to act with independent judgment on their behalf as beneficiaries.

The post Agency Theory and Corporate Sustainability appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

Climate change is the result of decades of high-emission industrialisation. This activity led to the development of some nations, but not all. Similarly, the impacts of climate change are not proportionally distributed; some parts of the world experience larger climate related hazards than others. Climate justice seeks to solve the climate problem while addressing these inequalities.

In this video, Mohamed Adow, Guest Expert on the Business and Climate Change: Towards Net Zero Emissions online short course from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) discusses the importance of climate justice.

Transcript

Climate justice is simply the idea that people who have caused and profited from creating the climate crisis through carbon-heavy industrialisation, should do their fair share to tackle the problem and also use part of their wealth to make amends. This is through reducing their own emissions, which have caused the problem in the first place, and also financially helping the victims of climate change by helping them to transition to zero carbon pathway, to adapt to the impact of climate change, but also to compensate for the losses which cannot be adapted to.

For example, Africa has 17 percent of the world’s population, but we Africans only contribute 4 percent of the global emissions that have brought misery and destruction through climate change. Not only are we not responsible, but Africa suffers disproportionately from the impact of climate change through severe drought and storms like Cyclone Idai that killed more than 1,300 people in Southern Africa in 2019. Sadly, the same is true for the citizens of low-lying island states in the Pacific and flood victims in coastal Bangladesh.

Climate justice is about righting this wrong. Climate justice allows us to talk about the solution, and it allows us to talk about inequality, vulnerability, and issues like energy access and poverty eradication.

The reason we need to understand the impact on the vulnerable is so that we understand the true nature of the problem, and can then adapt our policies and behaviours accordingly to protect them. We know that climate change will strike everyone if left unchecked. We should care about the climate-vulnerable, because of the moral imperative to care for those most in need, but people in the rich world, including the UK for example, should also do it out of self-interest.

It’s also what we should do if we want a well-functioning international order. Ignoring the plight of the vulnerable on such a global scale will lead to a breakdown in international relations. A lot of the poor countries and communities don’t necessarily have the clean technology that will facilitate and accelerate that transition to a low carbon or zero carbon future.

Access to clean technology, and having an intellectual property rights regime that allows for free transfer and development of those technologies in all countries equally, will actually help facilitate the transition.

The post Why Climate Justice Matters appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicate that decades of work have not yet had the impact to achieve a sustainable future for all. Achieving the SDGs by 2030 (as planned by the UN) requires a mindset shift. Investments in SDG programmes have typically focused on profit, but what we now need is a focus on impact.

Understanding financial systems in the context of sustainable development can contribute to creating a sustainable economy with long-term value returns for business and society alike.

Transcript

What I believe is needed in finance to meet the sustainable development goals are, first and foremost, a mindset shift.

For the last 20 years, the way we’ve deployed capital has been on what I call two-dimensional investing, based on risk and return. What we need to do in order to align capital to sustainable development goals is we need to add a third dimension, which is impact. With three dimensions – risk, return, and impact – we will start to move on the right journey in terms of the SDGs.

When you think about frontier markets, especially Africa, we have a 2.5 trillion-dollar gap, as far as the SDGs are concerned. That’s in addition to the 1.5 trillion that the rest of the world has. Without three-dimensional investing, there is no way that we will reach the target to fund the SDGs by 2030.

This mindset shift also means a shift in looking at profit and purpose, and moving away from what I call the Milton Friedman way of approaching capitalism.

The Milton Friedman model of capitalism is all about maximisation of shareholder value. It puts the shareholder first; social impact is not prioritised. If we start to shift away from that mindset and put social impact first, we will start on the journey to reaching a goal in terms of financing the SDGs.

There’s a reason impact hasn’t been mainstreamed. And a lot of these reasons are completely validated and completely understandable. For impact to be mainstreamed, we need to get to a point where we have what I call consistent, reliable, validated data to measure impact. And without that, it will be very difficult to make this financial world that we’ve known for so long and that we become so familiar with start to shift its mindset.

The rigour that we brought to the investment process also needs to be brought to impact investing. And we’re still very far from getting to that target, but there’s definitely lots of steps that are being made to get there.

With more data, with more evidence, likely in the next five years, we will start to see mainstreaming of impact investing. Consistency and validation of data is completely central to getting to that point.

The post The Mindset Shift Needed to Finance the Sustainable Development Goals appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

Climate change poses increased risks to businesses, as previously abundant ecosystem services are strained. However, these changes also bring potential opportunities for forward-thinking and innovative companies that can introduce solutions to the market and even revolutionise supply chains and industries.

Transcript

I usually say that business as usual is dead.

Nature is no longer unlimited and free. We have to stop to think that the profit we are producing today are real money. They are fake money. We are not paying for the service rendered by nature. For the people that have not understood that, and continue to think that they can draw a blank cheque on the next generation, are completely wrong. That’s why I’m saying that business as usual is dead.

You have to consider that, first of all, the nature renders a service that you have to remunerate. Number two: this will be triggered by huge acceleration of regulation. And this will trigger a lot of responsibility for the CEOs, the executive committee, but also for the directors, the non-exec and executive director.

This will lead business to review their strategy because a lot of new risks are coming. What typically your CEO was asking: costs, quality, and time of delivery. Now you have to ask your business: “Are you really resilient? Is your supply chain resilient?”

On the other hand, you have also plenty of new opportunities. I take the example of power that I know better. You have a tremendous shift from coal and fossil fuel energy to a new, renewable energy.

What will really put the pressure on business is the fact that the financial work is putting some pressure. Financial investors, bank, insurance, rating agency. Now they are all looking at your own strategy in terms of climate change. They are even asking you to declare this strategy. And something that people are not yet looking enough to is the fact that the talent, the young people, you, you are asking now to have a sense of who you work with. And I could give you plenty of example of company that had to change their strategy or their positioning because they were not able to recruit any more talent.

That’s why I believe that big business will carry a lot of, of the solution. They have a lot of responsibility, but they have a lot of solution because when the big business decides something, it can influence this whole supply chain and the multiplying effect is fantastic.

The post What Does Climate Resilience Mean for Your Business? appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

Sustainable business management practices are growing in demand from both end-consumers and regulatory bodies. Take one of the most significant contributors to global plastic usage as an example: the recyclable packaging materials market is forecast to grow by over five percent every year to almost $349 billion by 2026.¹ This growth trend is driven predominantly by environmentally-conscious consumer demand.

But it’s not only consumers pushing for green practices and sustainable trade. The UN’s 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), part of their sustainable development agenda, call businesses and individuals to strive for sustainability at all times.²

Business leaders at all levels need to incorporate sustainability into their long-term strategies, allowing them to adapt to the changing business context and use it as a competitive advantage.

Leaders have the opportunity to improve on or engage in new business sustainability practices and leadership through the Business Sustainability Management online short course from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). If you participate in and complete this course, you’ll also get the chance to continue this conversation when you join the CISL network.

The eight-week course, presented in collaboration with GetSmarter and delivered entirely online, will equip you with the ability to:

• Investigate the impact of present global economic, social, and environmental pressures on business
• Create an argument for the importance of integrating sustainability across an organisation’s value chain
• Assess the opportunities from entering into partnerships to create new value
• Reflect on your personal strategies used to influence sustainability-oriented change
• Develop environmentally conscious business strategies within your organisation
• Interact with like-minded working professionals from around the world when you join the CISL Alumni Network
• Develop and implement a unique action plan for your business

And read on to find out what past students thought about the course:

Adam Blight, Director, Government Affairs, Bayer Asia and Africa
“CISL’s online short course provides a unique vantage point from which to understand not just what sustainability is, but why it is a necessity for businesses to survive and thrive in the decades ahead. The course turns a sprawling, misunderstood topic into a clear and compelling pathway for businesses to help transform how economies grow. The real-life case studies revealed the power of sustainability leadership to drive impressive commercial, social, and environmental progress.”

Alexandra Baier, Business Partner Manager HR, Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund
“The course is very suitable for beginners on the topic of sustainability. It gives an excellent overview of the variety and breadth of the topic. Each module is comprehensive and offers a variety of learning methods. They enabled me to increase my knowledge and encouraged me to research even further about the topics. Each module incorporated access to expert knowledge and practical experiences that I could leverage from. Exchanges with my classmates were very good, as I got so many different views from various industries and focuses. I felt that the administration, online help, and tutors were very engaged. They helped as quickly as possible if any problem or question came up.”

Fariel Dif, Communication Director: Research and Innovation and Culture of Quality, Danone
“Changing a job and career orientation without having a background or solid foundation is common in my company, but not sustainable. My function is oriented on strategy, and this course allowed me to note that sustainability is at the heart of almost all the questions. I needed this training to feel empowered to proactively take initiative and take the floor about the topic. Just before the CISL course, I was contacted by a congress on sustainability to be a keynote speaker, and I declined. Today, I’m proud to have done this course, which was challenging but valuable. I was particularly impressed by the comprehensive content and the ongoing project. The case studies were also very useful as they enhanced my knowledge very efficiently. I highly recommend the CISL online courses. Thanks to the whole team and to my classmates for the great energy.”

Helena Stopher, Founder and CEO: Products of Change
“I had a basic knowledge of sustainability when I started this course. The online learning experience was extremely well-presented and easy to navigate. My understanding of sustainability across multiple areas has been vastly widened over this eight-week course. The networking was an extremely useful tool, both within the virtual classroom and externally via social media. I had extremely supportive online support and tutors who were available to advise quickly on all topics. This is a very well-run, professionally executed, and thought-provoking course that I would highly recommend.”

Ildiko Horvath, Human Resources and Communications Consultant
“The Business Sustainability Management course has well-balanced content that helps you to embed the theory into daily business practice. The knowledge shared is based on world-class research and displayed in a format that is easy to understand with great dynamics between reading materials and video and interactive learning content through group discussion forums. It has been my first online learning experience with clear structure and top-quality material. The topics had a logical flow, and through the assessment stages, we got direct feedback on our learning progress. The tutors were very friendly, with a genuine interest in their student’s advancement, and super helpful with whatever you needed help with. The experience is centred around integrative online learning, where you can network with top scientists, highly renowned business leaders, and inspiring creative minds from all walks of life.”

Lisa Boulton, Program Manager (GHG Data and Analytics), Nestlé
“I expected great things from this University of Cambridge course, and I was not disappointed! The depth and breadth of the material were impressive. One of the challenges was sticking to the material, because there were so many digressions possible, drilling down into additional material and researching more deeply on a topic. It was truly fascinating and inspiring. The tutors were very knowledgeable and supportive, the interviews and case studies were important to give real-life insights, and the discussion forums were very stimulating. The eco-building project in particular was great fun. The materials were really varied – some were drier and more difficult to get through than others – but the majority were easily accessible and interesting. I liked how the notes and materials were broken up with articles, videos, and other content. I would (and already have) recommended this course to anyone with an interest in sustainability and business.”

Lisa Codo, ESG Product Strategy, ESG Solutions, Moody’s
“I really enjoyed the content of this course. I found the reading varied and interesting coming from theorists, case studies, and business CEOs, each with different perspectives which made the learning so much richer. The mix between videos, reading, and infographics also broke up the content to make it easier to digest. The content was really practical for business, particularly the case studies. The conversations with classmates were as important and useful as the course itself, and the proportions worked well.”

Macrina Busato, E-learning Consultant/Design Consultant, Hecho X Nosotros (HXN)
“My learning experience on the Business Sustainability Management online short course has broadened my perspective in many different aspects, from finance, regulatory environments, and policy to partnership and leadership for action. Being online has been very important, allowing me to continue my work while studying in a smooth way. Indeed, I have invested many hours studying and working on exercises after work and on weekends, but it is designed to be managed alongside your current job. The platform is intuitive and very easy to manage. Group discussions are facilitated and they are part of the learning experience. You get to see different perspectives and share valuable links and experiences. The online support is also designed to help at any moment. I had to travel for a conference and had a health issue and they were very open to expanding the deadlines for deliverables. I highly recommend this course to anyone in all industries. Sustainable management literacy is something we all should have in the 21st century. I am very happy I decided to invest in this course. I look forward to participating in other Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership learning experiences.”

Madelief Verdaasdonk, Sustainability Consultant, Prodrive Technologies
“The Business Sustainability Management course not only opened my eyes [to] the necessity of switching to a circular economy, but it also gave me the tools on how to transform businesses towards a sustainability mentality. The content builds on each other and gives a holistic view of the most important concepts. The online learning platform is easy to use and makes learning fun in a new way, which was unknown to me before.”

Rosalind Brown, Marketing Director – Europe: Portfolio, Innovation, and Integration, The Coca-Cola Company
“Overall, I thought this course was excellent. I really loved it, and all that I learned. It really was an eyeopener discerning fact from fiction. The content was broad and all-encompassing, allowing you to really understand a number of aspects. My knowledge in sustainability has been massively enhanced, and I now have far greater depth and confidence when speaking on such matters, as well as thoughts for implementing new plans. Meeting and networking with my classmates was really good. I enjoyed our weekly catch-ups on the online forums; we have set up a LinkedIn group and will be meeting in London in the future. The online support was great, it’s the first time I have done an online course and found it very helpful.”

Are you ready to drive sustainable business practices in your organisation?

Register for the University of Cambridge Business Sustainability Management online short course to learn from industry experts and global thought leaders.

CAMBRIDGE CISL
Business Sustainability Management

The post CISL Business Sustainability Management Student Testimonials appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

The journey to meaningful business sustainability is gaining traction. One of its pioneers is Philippe Joubert, Executive Chairman of the Global Electricity Initiative and Guest Lecturer on the Business Sustainability Management online short course from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).

In an exclusive video for the course, Joubert discusses the death of ‘business as usual’: too many companies aren’t paying for the services rendered to us by nature. Taking advantage of daily conveniences and relying on the availability of natural resources like air, water, and land without a second thought will have a cost that can no longer be ignored. The Earth’s resources are finite.

As Joubert, who is also the Founder and CEO of Earth on Board, states: the link between our everyday resources and the resources the planet provides has never been more apparent – and never more tenuous.

The truth is that nature is no longer limited and free. In fact, it never was. Joubert warns that what we take from nature comes at a cost that business owners are increasingly compelled to pay.

Before, concerns typically revolved around the “golden triangle” of cost, quality, and time of delivery. Now, management and executive committees need to know whether their organizations and supply chains are truly resilient.

And this is where you, as a business leader, can make a meaningful change.

Driving meaningful change in business

Sustainability has reached critical mass, with world summits and economic forums monitoring issues of resource scarcity and high-risk environmental factors affecting world populations.

There’s no reason for companies to be reluctant. Sustainability makes business sense. In addition to the financial pressures of climate change, the consumer has more power than ever and is becoming a driving force of change for sustainable business practices.

Innovation improves human lives

Innovation in sustainability requires a change in the mode of thinking in that businesses merely offer products and services in economic terms to companies that also demonstrate social value. Limited resources increasingly force businesses to demonstrate their ability to operate responsibly, ensuring that they act for the common good. Organizations are expected and held to a higher ideal of resource conservation because of the magnitude of their actions and their effects. The old status quo of doing business has changed irrevocably.

This is a hard-hitting truth for many businesses, which may not understand the need for this ideology. But statistics on the earth’s “ecological deficit” portrays a clear picture.

Building a sustainable business

Despite its drain on resources, one would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t like the convenience that technology brings. But how can this translate into building a sustainable business?

Companies increasingly realize that the cost and social challenges of doing business are inextricably linked. This isn’t a vague concept – cost metrics are driving businesses to care about environmental factors, especially when the volatility of natural resources is at stake. Therefore, a corporate sustainability plan is enacted not out of legal obligation, but as a necessity.

The reality is that, as organizations become more comfortable with the concepts and language of sustainability, nearly all of these terms have become common business discourse:

• Renewable energy
• Climate change
• Carbon footprint
• Resource scarcity
• Urbanization
• Deforestation
• Reuse, repurpose, recycle

Developing a business sustainability plan

As organizations begin to recognize the importance of sustainability, they’re learning to redefine business risk to the point where the financial implications of a profitable business rest on a “triple bottom line of profit, people, and the planet.”² In essence, a company that fully accounts for financial, social, and environmental factors truly understands the costs of doing business. Environmental risks have become powerful metrics for business practices and performance.

However, despite its benefits, sustainability can’t be forcibly grafted to existing business strategies. Incorporating it in such a way that the organization can realize its potential requires a level of skill and awareness. Therefore, it requires an investment in sustainability training and education.

Your next steps to a sustainability plan

First is to educate yourself and your employees. Become future-fit by learning about sustainability and discovering innovative methodologies for driving meaningful change from Joubert and other industry pioneers on the University of Cambridge Business Sustainability Management online short course.

Next, it’s key to implement your corporate sustainability plan. However, you need to ensure that the plan is as sustainable as you hope to make your business. It’s about driving its business value for:

• Your employees: How could your CSR initiative lead to employee engagement, skills development, and retention?
• Your customer: How could your CSR initiative appeal to your consumer, creating customer satisfaction and the opportunity to market?
• Your investors: How could your CSR initiative promote your business’s credibility, attracting potential investors and clients?
• Your business: How could your CSR initiative contribute to research, encourage business development, and ensure business sustainability management?

Download this CSR Strategy Toolkit to conceptualize and develop the CSR initiative that will best serve you, your company, and your community.

Develop a sustainability plan of action that brings meaningful change to your business with this online course.

CAMBRIDGE CISL
Business Sustainability Management online short course

The post Developing a Plan of Action for Business Sustainability appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

The first definition of big data appeared in a 1997 NASA paper. Scientists described it then as a visualization problem that affected computer systems, caused by the volume of information. Essentially, there was too much data for the system to handle.¹ Over the years, the definition has changed. In 2013, it gained popular recognition when it was placed in the Oxford English Dictionary; the OED describes it as, “Extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.”²

Today, big data is finding new avenues of opportunity in a world searching for solutions to sustainability challenges.

The potential of big data

Computing power and global connectivity have led to rapid advances in data gathering. Collecting, analyzing, and processing data offers unique insight into diverse environments, including political and socio-economic spheres. From the point of view of sustainability, data allows businesses to understand the external climate, make better-informed business decisions, decrease waste, predict economic and market trends, and save financially. Insights into these factors enable organizations to grapple effectively with the needs of sustainability and realize its benefits.

While environmental and industry effects are often beyond a business’s control, they’re also the factors that can have the most significant impact on a business. Before the age of data, achieving a holistic understanding of internal business operations was a challenge; understanding the external, natural world was unimaginable. Now, businesses can interpret data and achieve an insightful perspective on their influencing markets and the interactions between the business world and consumers, suppliers, and other organizations.

Once interpreted, data can reveal a rabbit hole of insights, showing, for instance, the true origins of emissions in the supply chain. This information is invaluable for large corporations that typically have the greatest environmental impact but also need to contend with an overwhelmingly complex value chain. Emissions in such complicated systems can come from sources outside the known control of these corporations but can be unearthed using data analytics techniques. Without the use of big data, information about these emissions and where they come from would be inaccessible, making it difficult to achieve sustainability goals.

Gaining an understanding of the entire end-to-end impact requires major metric measurements. However, big data offers the possibility of revolutionary and transformational gains in measurement and commensurate gains in the pursuit of sustainability.

Sustainability goals

Sustainability has evolved over the years. Previously, only environmental-based organizations and governments felt the pressure to be sustainable. However, it also impacts the social and economic environment. The United Nations (UN) has acknowledged the all-encompassing nature of sustainability in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).³ The program consists of 17 global goals that each UN Member State has adopted and hopes to achieve by 2030. The SDGs include environmental goals such as:

• Climate action
• Life below water
• Life on land

Socially and economically, it includes development plans for:

• Quality education
• Sustainable cities and communities
• Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
• Decent work and economic growth
• Gender equality

To achieve the SDGs, metrics from all UN members will need to be evaluated in a global sustainability indicator and publicly shared – and new sustainability technology holds the key to doing so. Climate change can potentially be measured by combining satellite imagery, crowd-sourced witness accounts, and open data to track deforestation.⁴ Industry and governments can investigate solutions for improving traffic and infrastructure by collecting data from GPS devices. This is just one way in which technology is harnessed in efforts to improve the sustainability profile of infrastructure. Take a look at the video below to learn more:

By analyzing financial transactions that reveal the spending patterns and different impacts of economic instability on women and men,⁵ new sustainability technology can also be used to interpret the pace of gender equality development.

As the population increases, technology advances, and the Internet of Things (IoT) weaves an even bigger web of connectivity – data increases exponentially. However, to ensure the system remains robust, the UN’s proposal measures SDGs by depending largely on simple tech interactions: cell phones, computers, and banking. All are basic personalized technologies that exist across the globe.

Big data poses dynamic potential for sustainability innovations. Accessibility of data has been enhanced by technological advancements in information gathering and analysis. Tech’s improvement in analysis also means that data provides unparalleled insight. As innovation continues to develop, so do the possibilities of how data informs our global landscape. Currently, big data enables businesses to realize, manage, and act on their environmental impact – what has otherwise been unknown and beyond their influence. For the foreseeable future, society will be looking at innovative tech to guide, expose, and inform our business and sustainable decisions.

Examples demonstrating the technology-sustainability revolution

Behind each data innovation lies a disruptive technology that enables it. Ultimately, it’s technology that builds the core foundation on which data is processed and interpreted, enabling new methods of realizing ever greater sustainability. Efficiently managed, technology far surpasses any manual method of coordinating and tracking data.

Tackling food waste

Key drivers in the tech-sustainability movement are startups that utilize technology to improve sustainability outcomes while unlocking new value. It is, for instance, a common dogma that a third of all food grown is wasted due to the gaps and inefficiency of the distribution chain.⁶ Not only does this put food security in peril, but food waste is a major contributor to methane emissions. Startups are tackling the problem by turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to massively boost efficiency, and ultimately design systems that eliminate food waste.⁷

A third of all food grown is wasted, simply due to the gaps and inefficiency of the distribution chain.

The power of microgrids

Technological innovation is also rapidly finding a home in the energy sector, where a new phenomenon is taking hold: microgrids. While traditional energy supply is built on centralized systems of generation and large transmission networks, microgrids are semi-autonomous, localized power grids. These small-scale systems use peer-to-peer networking functionality and blockchain technology to not only manage the generation and provision of electricity but to trade surplus energy to peers on the grid.⁸

Water in dry lands

Yet another emerging sustainable technology example resides in water security. For nearly a decade, the water crisis has ranked among the top global risks by both impact and likelihood.⁹ Globally, 2.8 billion people don’t have access to safely managed water sanitation services.¹⁰ Predictions estimate that by 2030, there will be a 40 percent gap in global water supply if current practices continue. Water sustainability is a pressing challenge.¹¹ Again, innovation experts and technology leaders are capitalizing on new approaches to improving resource management.

Globally, 2.8 billion people don’t have access to safely managed water sanitation services.

Among the solutions being pursued, blockchain’s ability to create transparent and shared transactions could revolutionize how water resources are managed and traded. The technology offers the ability for consumers and businesses to make better decisions by enabling the effective collection and analysis of water-use data. It will allow families, market consumers, organizations, and governments to access the same data on water quality and quantity, leading to greater transparency and, ultimately, greater equity in water rights.¹² As the data is easily available, it helps to reduce the risk of corruption within water tampering and even encourages resource sharing. Allowing broad access to data on water quantity and quality can inform various decisions, such as a farmer sharing water resources based on weather, crop, and market data, using information accessible through mobile devices.

Creating sustainable cities with the latest technology

By 2045, the number of people living in cities will explode, from 4.2 billion in 2020 to over 6 billion.¹³ This makes sustainability in urban settings unavoidably urgent. Although the broader environment is the biggest cause for concern, as cities expand, there’s increasing pressure on public infrastructures and supply chains. Increasingly, overpopulated urban communities are likely to struggle to provide basic amenities, including clean water and safe, reliable electricity.

By 2045, the number of people living in cities will explode, from 4.2 billion in 2020 to over 6 billion.

The IESE Cities in Motion Index analyzes 174 cities from 80 countries. A “smart” or sustainable city balances, for example, social cohesion, economy, environment, urban planning, mobility, and transport. According to the index, a sustainable city should create a landscape that reduces pollution, builds strong and efficient public spaces, and facilitates growth.¹⁴

Topping the Index in 2020 was the city of London, which excelled at creating efficiency by relying on smart technologies and big data to enhance and innovate basic public necessities. The city relies on an open data source containing more than 700 datasets to inform its approach to urban challenges and public services.¹⁵

Big data plays an essential part in creating sustainable spaces, as society will interact and access information from smart systems using their phones and other digital devices. Turning cities smart may seem a costly and advanced trend among the globe’s biggest and best cities, but it’s simply cities and governments responding to the pressure placed on vital infrastructure – a sustainable transformation that will become a global standard. Eventually, cities will run off data-driven systems that manage energy, water, transport, waste, and even safety.

The business benefits of sustainability

Sustainability has historically been strictly associated with the public sector. However, private businesses have finally begun to recognize its benefits. Today, many private corporations are developing the sustainable innovations changing our world.

There are good reasons: becoming sustainable can lower business costs as companies reduce waste and save on input expenses. Consequently, sustainability can drive additional revenue for further innovation or business developments. Sustainability practices can even be a source of new revenue, as the journey to sustainability uncovers new business opportunities. As noted in GetSmarter’s sustainability report, sustainability can also be used as a tool for talent retention.

The path to sustainability is reshaping businesses and encouraging a level of transparency that was previously avoided. The honesty of data has made businesses accountable for their methods. It’s changing the way consumers choose their brands and products, and how businesses interact with suppliers and production methods. Eventually, every company will have to evolve for new sustainable standards established by the consumer market and enforced by regulations.

Businesses developing their approach to sustainability will need to contend with several factors:

1. Identifying compliance as an opportunity
   As sustainability has been left mainly in the hands of governments, it’s generally been achieved through regulation and enforcement. Environmental regulations vary across countries and even within them, and the compliance process is complex for multinational companies. However, adopting specific standards and investing in sustainability offers the opportunity to realize the economic benefits and improved consumer sentiments associated with sustainable practices.
2. Making value chains sustainable
   Achieving holistic environmental goals will only work if every aspect of production follows suit. Sustainability needs to be adopted by suppliers and retailers throughout the chain to further reduce waste and prevent downstream environmental implications.
3. Designing sustainable products and services
   The economic benefits of sustainable products and services are clear. Environmental awareness has reshaped customer expectations – many now prefer eco-friendly brands and products. Innovation opportunities exist for those able to redesign or create sustainable products. To the benefit of business, this reinvention also tends to produce significant savings and profits as companies reduce their waste, input and output costs, and increase efficiency.
4. Developing new business models
   Sustainability provides the opportunity to redesign business strategies and how customers and businesses think of conventional practices. Business leaders and managers will need to develop the ability to create sustainable business solutions.
5. Creating next-practice platforms
   Finally, businesses that wish to remain relevant will be pushed to develop new innovations and practices. Sustainability has led to the revolutionary integration of disparate markets such as groceries and digital tech. Conventional platforms will soon be insufficient, and business leaders will have to assume responsibility for the sustainability of their companies and the greater environment.

The latest technology and innovations have created powerful new pathways to achieving sustainability. Harnessed together, technology can enable sustainability to be a realistic initiative that every citizen assumes responsibility for. As an individual, it offers the space to be an agent for positive change; as a business, it’s linked to economic benefits. Although laced with a number of challenges, the future has the potential to fulfill the promise of sustainability.

Increase your business sustainability knowledge with one of GetSmarter’s online sustainability short courses.

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