The world is plagued with issues like poverty, climate change, and humanitarian crises. And businesses are increasingly measured, not only by profits and returns, but also by their good deeds towards the environment, society, and economy.
Sustainable practices in businesses refer to the management and coordination of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices to ensure responsible, ethical, and ongoing success. Organizations like the ESG Business Institute support businesses with tools to operate ethically and sustainably and build a better, prosperous future. Affirmative actions to alleviate the scourges in ecosystems and human populations now factor into business success; financial profit is not the only aim.
Various industries have been influenced by the sustainability movement. Corporate structure plays a major role in shaping business practices, with different factors encouraging good sustainable practices; this is because every business has different ideas of sustainability, objectives, and goals; so, it is not a “one-size-fits-all”. Some businesses practice sustainability by adhering to the triple bottom line:
- People for social equality whereby all the stakeholders benefit. The social equality should not only prevail at present but must be carried forward to the future.
- Planet for environmental protection, whereby business profitability is committed to sustainable environmental practices and policies, creating greener business models.
- Profit for value to the people and the planet, whereby profit is not generated at the expense of the wellbeing of the people and the planet.
Other business leaders build their sustainability practices around six specific factors:
- Climate change: using sustainable resources to reduce and reverse global warming
- Environment: keeping environmental conservation in mind
- People: striving for sustainability instead of exploiting nature and resources, accepting that humans are a part of the world and not masters of the world
- Ethics: being accountable and responsible, applying ethical sustainability
- Innovation: devising innovative ways to uphold sustainability
- Technology: adopting either new or renewable technologies that generate sustainability
In the future, business leaders should connect evolving sustainable business practices with continuous improvement. Elevate your sustainable business practices to the next level by taking the Corporate Sustainability certificate program offered by Genashtim in collaboration with eCornell.
eCornell courses are approved by SkillsFuture Singapore for SkillsFuture Credit as well as by HRD Corp Malaysia under its SBL-Khas Scheme.