- Corporate sustainability is to conduct business activities to contribute to social well-being and environmental protection.
Profit, People, and Planet are the three primary considerations that corporates should embed in their vision, strategy, and everyday business activities.
- People: all participants in the business activities, including the stakeholders, employees, customers, and other people and communities affected by the business activities.
- Planet: the short term and long term positive/negative impact on environmental sustainability.
- Profit: financial profit and contribution to social welfare.
Corporates are the strong pillars of inclusive and sustainable economic development. Of course, profit gets needed to keep corporates alive; meanwhile, corporate social responsibility reminds corporates not to profit at the expense of social and environmental sustainability. Corporates ought to broaden their definition of “value” from wealth to the benefits to humanity, society, and the planet.
- Making a positive difference, both socially and environmentally, to enhance the needs of the present world while keeping in mind how these actions will impact the future and continuously developing and changing them to adapt to the changing world.
The needs of the world change with economic growth or recessions, reduction and consumption of resources, social attitudes and beliefs, actions of large corporations or government bodies, environmental change, and innovation. Therefore, a corporation’s positive, sustainable difference to our world will be different now compared to what it will be in 20, 50 or 100 years, however, to be a corporation which preaches sustainability in its culture, must make an impact not only on the present world but sustain this positive impact into the future as well. In other words, a corporation must continue to develop its initiatives while changing it to adapt to the changing needs of the world.
- Sustainability quite simply is the ability to sustain. In a more global context, it can be defined as the process to use our available resources in such a way that we leave the world a better place than what we came in.
It is very complicated to strike a balance between economic prosperity and sustainable development especially in current emerging economies, and one should keep them in mind as a major point of focus. However, to grow in a way that gives the next generation resources to work with and improve is the only way to keep growing as a society. For example, with conscious steps to reduce carbon footprint now will give more time to the future generations to innovate techniques to amplify this reduction further. These steps, however, need to be taken now before we reach a point of no return.