{"id":6027,"date":"2019-10-18T10:42:56","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T07:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=6027"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:37","slug":"the-sustainability-manifesto-for-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/10\/18\/the-sustainability-manifesto-for-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sustainability Manifesto for Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Companies working towards protecting the natural environment are doing a vital job. In this pursuit, they must also consider their social, economic and cultural impact as well. The focus should be on overall sustainability. Most of the world\u2019s largest economic entities are corporations, not countries. Great power creates great expectations: societies increasingly hold businesses accountable as the only institution strong enough to meet the huge long-term challenge facing our planet. Coming to grips with them is more than corporate responsibility. It is essential for corporate survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unfortunately, short term strategies have now become endemic. When Uber, a multinational ride-sharing company, was introduced in Kenya, taxis were kicked off the market over the competitive edge and technology of Uber. For them and all other businesses, are quickly learning that survival is not a right. The possibility of such a firestorm had been obvious for decades yet the businesses involved are only now trying to deal with it. For them and all other businesses, survival is not a right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To endure in a dynamic world with\ndecreasing resources, companies must execute more sustainable strategies.\nSustainability is much bigger as it encompasses every single dimension of the\nbusiness environment: social, economic, cultural as well as natural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until the 80s, business leaders used\nthe term sustainability to mean a companies&#8217; ability to increase their earnings\nsteadily. The term became widely used as &#8220;meeting the needs of the present\nwithout compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own\nneeds&#8221; after it appeared in a UN report by Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway\u2019s\nformer Prime Minister in 1987.&nbsp; Putting\ninto consideration that sustainability even has a dark side:\n&#8220;greenwashing&#8221; \u2013 focusing more on communicating your green efforts\nthan on the efforts themselves.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A sustainable business as defined by\nmost is a business that can thrive in the long-term. Sustainability is bigger\nthan a PR stunt or a green product line even bigger than heartfelt but\noccasional nodes to ongoing efforts to save the planet. Imagined and\nimplemented fully, sustainability drives a bottom-line strategy to save costs,\na top-line strategy to reach new consumer base and a talent strategy to get,\nkeep and develop creative employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">True sustainability has four equal\ncomponents;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Economic. This component seeks to help businesses and people meet\neconomic needs. For people, it helps secure the basic needs and creature\ncomforts. For businesses, it is turning a profit.<\/li><li>Social. It addresses conditions that affect us all including\npoverty, violence, injustice, gender equality, education, public health, labour\nand human rights.<\/li><li>Environmental. This component seeks to protect and restore the\nEarth, for instance \u2013 by controlling climate change, preserving natural\nresources and preventing waste.<\/li><li>Cultural. It protects and values diversity through which\ncommunities manifest their identity and cultivates traditions across\ngenerations.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although the challenges to\nsustainability are acute, there has never been a better time than the present\nfor a company to play a critical role in helping to solve them while building\nup its business. Many of the social and environmental trends we face are sad,\neven tragic, but sustainability is not about throwing your business down the\ndrain and embracing your inner saint. That is one reason for looking beyond the\ngreen aspect of sustainability and using its social, economic and cultural\nsides as tools for building successful companies. Green business, green jobs\nand emerging green economies will be a central part of the new world now being\nborn but green alone is not a broad enough platform to sustain most businesses\nfor a long haul. Only those businesses that take into account broader social\nissues will be able to thrive and lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A business that aims to achieve\ngreater sustainability must, therefore, articulate a strategic direction that\nembodies a global human challenge larger than any organization. Such a strategy\nshould be consistent with the strength of the company, have a connection to its\ncore business and elicit the personal contributions and passions of its\nmembers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Companies working towards protecting the natural environment are doing a vital job. In this pursuit, they must also consider their social, economic and cultural impact as well. The focus should&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}