INDUSTRYCORPORATE
promise of societal and business evolution towards a more equitable and wealthy world in which the natural environment and our cultural and corporate achievements are aligned.
S
Within a business context, sustainability can accordingly be defined as meeting the needs of a firm’s direct and indirect stakeholders, without compromising its ability to meet the needs of future stakeholders as well. Putting sustainability at the forefront of business has for many companies (The John Lewis Group, The Cooperative, Marks & Spencer), created a positive brand association and increased consumer interest, equating to financial buoyancy. Put simply, sustainability is good for business.
It’s also good for the planet. Global issues surrounding energy security, unstable fuel prices and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as sustainable procurement, the purchase of raw materials from sustainable sources, ethical trade and corporate social responsibility (CSR), has led to organisations increasingly making the commitment to move towards a more sustainable, low carbon, energy efficient model.
European approach
Across Europe, governments are focused on carbon reduction. For example France is planning to reduce its CO2 emissions by 75 percent, as laid out in the Energy Act 2005, and Germany has set a reduction target of 40 percent by 2020 with the Emissions Ordinum (emissions trading scheme) coming into force in 2012.
The latest Cancun Climate Change Summit also resulted in global agreement that requires deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the new ISO 26000 standard comes at a time when businesses are being judged on anything from their e-waste disposal and safety standards to their carbon emissions.
In organisations worldwide the two disciplines, energy and sustainability, are gradually becoming combined in order to enable an organisation to maintain and grow their economic, social and environmental capital base while actively contributing to sustainability in the political domain. At present, several employees may be engaged with aspects of energy and sustainability across a
ustainability has become a mantra for the 21st century. It embodies the
global company, this is often not their main focus and sustainability and energy monitoring can become an ‘add-on’ to a much broader role, thus the focus is diluted.
With the appointment of an Energy and Sustainability Manager a coordinated, strategic approach is provided, lead by a single individual who draws together all aspects of sustainability, energy management, social and ethical due diligence, a complex, technically challenging and constantly changing market due to legislation and technology, and creates a green strategy for the whole company.
If energy and sustainability is managed in a strategic manner by one individual who delegates out responsibilities, then an organisation is more easily able to present a clear and transparent sustainable strategy for the company as a whole.
Creating advantage
The term sustainability strategies was integrated into the management lexicon in 1992 and has since involved the development of competitive advantages that allow firms to capitalise on environmental and energy efficiency opportunities and to minimise environmental threats. A company’s choices on issues such as environmental management will not only help define its corporate reputation, but also dictate its level of risk exposure, set the standard for competition, influence investor relations and directly impact its bottom line.
Since the greening of the business environment is a critical dimension that will provide significant opportunities and threats well into the future, it stands to reason that strategic managers would increasingly seek to implement sustainability strategies in the decades to come and the most effective method of achieving this is to take Energy and Sustainability into the Boardroom.
Sustainability measures a company’s ability to achieve its business goals and increase long-term shareholder value by integrating economic, environmental, and social growth opportunities into the company’s strategies
The evidence of growing interest in sustainability is impressive. A survey of 1,000 CEOs from 43 countries by PricewaterhouseCoopers indicated that 79% of these CEOs believe that sustainability
Sustainability measures a company’s ability to achieve its business goals and increase long-term shareholder value by integrating economic, environmental and social growth
opportunities into the
company’s strategies
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www.solar-pv-management.com Issue IV 2011
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