The culture of consumerism shares a close relationship with the industrial and corporate sectors. Leading business owners invest a significant amount of capital in developing innovative products, services and solutions that cater for the need of the customers while making adequate profits. However, recently, the boom of social media and digitization has nurtured a generation of critical thinkers who think twice before making their investments in order to gain Corporate Sustainability.
In order to keep up with this paradigmatic shift in the minds of the people, businesses try to incorporate novel ideas and strategies into their operational apparatus like green practices and eco-friendly initiatives. In this blog, we will highlight the definition, importance, and benefits of corporate sustainability.
In simple terms, corporate sustainability can be defined as a strategy where a business delivers its services and goods to facilitate economic and sustainable growth. In addition, it effectively prioritizes long-term development via eco-friendly methods in opposition to short-term financial gains.
If a business has an integrated corporate sustainable strategy, it must utilize natural resources responsibly and invest in the well-being of the environment while ensuring that all members involved in the process are treated equally. Here is an insight into the three strong pillars of corporate sustainability:
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The Environmental Pillar
This is inclusive of multiple strategies to offset and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions like utilizing green energy, eradicating toxic hazards, managing waste, recycling or reusing materials, reducing carbon footprint in the value chain, and more.
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The Economic Pillar
This ensures that businesses can thrive and survive to make a positive long-term impact. For example, reducing overall costs by using minimal plastic in packaging cycles and producing more green jobs [1].
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The Social Pillar
This pillar is concerned with practices that actively promote the safety, health, and well-being of employees, communities, and customers. In addition, it includes activities like protecting access to natural resources, ensuring customers have the rightful information about the products, building an effective safety culture, etc.
Importance of Corporate Sustainability
Several organizations set ambitious benchmarks for themselves regarding decarbonization and net-zero emissions. However, most fail to meet these goals at the implementation stage. Below we have mentioned some of the many pointers on how to apply and integrate the idea of corporate sustainability to receive the best results:
- The core importance of corporate sustainability lies in bringing companies and industries more in touch with the standards of sustainable development.
- Also, it is imperative to construct a rough roadmap for a rejuvenated, greener, and cleaner planet when it comes to global warming and climate change.
- Today, in the age of hyper-awareness about social issues and environmental health, corporate sustainability has proven to be an integral tool to convince customers about the intent and priorities of the organization.
- To put it simply, corporate sustainability matters as it enables companies to grow, adapt and rethink with the demands and needs of an evolving society and planet.
A Glimpse into Some of the Best Corporate Sustainability Initiatives
In contrast with the above point, there are some companies that have brilliantly implemented corporate sustainability practices to receive commendable results. Let’s get into it:
1. Neste Corporation
Based in Finland, Neste Corporation is a marketing and oil-refining company which is listed among the most sustainable companies in the world. Even though it is a petroleum company, which emits a huge amount of GHG emissions, it heavily invests in the development of renewable products like biofuels. In fact, today, around 25% of their overall revenue is generated from refining biofuels, proving to be a trailblazer in the field of corporate sustainability.
2. Umicore
Umicore is one of the best materials technology companies that secured the seventh position on the Global 100. Primarily, the company focuses on smelting and mining and also generates massive revenue from a variety of clean technologies like emission control catalysts, recycling metals, and producing batteries for electric vehicles.
3. Prologis
Prologis is the only real estate investment trust that has made it to the Global 100 list. The company actively contributes to corporate sustainability by selling best-in-class energy-efficient buildings while going above and beyond the conventional standards for sustainable development.
4.Banco de Brasil
Did you know that Banco de Brasil is the most sustainable bank in the world? They have accelerated the idea of corporate sustainability through their green load programmes, which allow companies to finance initiatives with a positive environmental impact. For instance, people can use green loans to build renewable energy projects, eco-friendly buildings, or even to implement energy-conservation measures.
Schneider Electric: Accelerating Sustainability for All
At Schneider Electric, the idea of sustainability [2] lies at the core of our purpose, business, and culture as we accelerate our contributions to a brighter and more inclusive world.
Last year, we pursued ambitious decarbonization goals by deploying top-notch solutions and services to deliver sustainability and energy efficiency while guiding our partners, customers, and suppliers in reducing their emissions. Here is a glimpse into our sustainability impact highlights (2021):
- Last year, our EcoStruxure solutions helped customers reduce their carbon emissions by 84 million tonnes.
- Next, in October 2021, we launched the ‘Energize Programme’ to expand access to renewable energy.
- With the Zero-Carbon Project, we worked closely with 1,000 top suppliers to halve their carbon emissions by 2025.
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