Corporate sustainability has become a buzzword in both large and small businesses. Sustainability is considered by many real giants as a key priority going forward. One way to look at sustainability is to look at the three pillars of sustainability. Companies using this strategy pursue a balanced approach to long-term social, environmental, and economic goals to protect the planet’s integrity and improve the quality of life.
The activities of the private sector can have a significant impact on the environment, societies, and the economy, and incorporating sustainability measures into businesses helps solve many of the world’s issues and achieve additional advantages.
Corporate sustainability is a strategy that aims to create long-term stakeholder value through the implementation of a business plan that focuses on the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of doing business.
Businesses must have a corporate sustainability plan in place to manage climate instability, create a better future for our communities, and assure long-term economic success.
A sustainable business is one that works in tandem with societal and environmental aims, rather than in opposition with them.
Corporate sustainability is a long-term growth strategy that works in harmony with people and the environment.
The three pillars of corporate sustainability – economic, social, and environmental – work in tandem to assist firms in their efforts to adopt more sustainable practices. Corporations have demonstrated that sustainability measures result in a better brand image, lower costs, happier shareholders, enhanced productivity, and many other advantages. The concept of sustainability is here to stay.
The relevance of embedding sustainability components into the core of your business stems from the fact that investors are already analyzing the scope of CSR and its role in addressing societal demands. It is a driving force and a deciding element in their decisions to invest in enterprises.
Let’s understand more about the three pillars of sustainability:
● Social Sustainability: This pillar assumes that the searching for a sustainable society has the idea of having a well-cared and healthy society. It refers to the human capital, as the creation of tools that improve the citizens’ quality of life, laws to support the necessity of the population and the development of improving politics in areas like education, security and leisure.
For businesses, efforts to generate social sustainability could include focusing company efforts on employee retention instead of economic priorities. For example, investments in the well-being of employees are likely to generate economic benefits for the company by increasing employee motivation.
● Environmental Sustainability: The environmental pillar has its roots in the many ways to search for the environmental preservation, the natural resources and the diminishing of the damage caused to the environment during the years. This pillar includes water quality, air quality, and reduction of environmental stressors, such as greenhouse gas emissions. It is at this stage that the companies study the ways to accomplish their operations causing the lowest possible impact to the environment. Human health depends greatly on the quality of a person’s environment. Therefore, efforts to preserve and restore the environment benefits people, too.
● Economic Sustainability: it refers to subjects about the manufacture, production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Companies cannot benefit from the exploitation of workers or the reckless and illegal exploitation of the environment to be sustainable.
Sustainable attitudes benefit the financial sector because they reduce materials, energy, and water use, lowering their monthly expenses. In other words, there is a cyclical pattern of advantages between sustainability and the economy.
Simply, sustainability is becoming increasingly vital for all businesses in all industries. Corporate sustainability is a corporate strategy that focuses on the social, environmental, and economic components of doing business to provide long-term stakeholder value.
