Sustainability Series: Part 1
Acknowledge the problem, Great Reset — A new beginning
Amid recent global lockdowns due to Covid-19, we saw a new wake up call. We saw pictures of wild animals reclaiming the planet, while humans were inside the home. Are they reclaiming the habitat they once had? We have put the paradigm to test only to realize how fragile climate change is.
David Quammen, author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Pandemic, recently wrote in the New York Times, “We cut the trees; we kill the animals or cage them and send them to markets. We disrupt ecosystems, and we shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, they need a new host. Often, we are it.”¹
A recent article from Scientific American² quoted David Quammen and brought an interesting realization, which might be a dormant thought in people’s minds. It is high time we acknowledge that we need a complete overhaul of the current approach. We need to emerge revitalized with a very progressive vision — one with societal and sustainability issues valued equal to the business ones. Sustainability is that new window of opportunity. Without proper understanding, one might toss it off as a fad and just a feel-good factor to have, but it is far more relevant for a balanced ecosystem.
In 1987, the UN had defined sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Although the term was defined much earlier, the notion of sustainable development is trending more in the twenty-first century. In 2015, the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 17 SDGs at its core, at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015. Never before have world leaders pledged common action and endeavor across such a broad and universal policy agenda³. The revised SDG is intended to be achieved by 2030, which leaves us just 10 more years. So time to take small steps in the right direction is getting over and the need for everyone to identify their role and work towards achieving it has arisen.
What caught my attention in this declaration was
“We commit to making fundamental changes in the way that our societies produce and consume goods and services. Governments, international organizations, the business sector, and other non-state actors and individuals must contribute to changing unsustainable consumption and production patterns, including through the mobilization, from all sources, of financial and technical assistance to strengthen developing countries’ scientific, technological, and innovative capacities to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production. “
“We are setting out together on the path towards sustainable development, devoting ourselves collectively to the pursuit of global development and of “win-win” cooperation which can bring huge gains to all countries and all parts of the world”.⁴
As the US rejoins the Paris climate agreement, it has taken the first step in the right direction, and we need to follow this with the difficult and also more time-bound next steps. What many people fail to recognize is that, having green sustainable products available in the market does not always results from a sustainable development. With the recent meet at the World Economic Forum (Davos Agenda) and its focus on the Great Reset, seems to be the start of a new promising era where corporations are ready to perform according to Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) criteria and ready to “walk the talk”.
“We are moving from short-term shareholder profit maximization to a world that is characterized by stakeholder responsibility”
-World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab⁵
For the world to improve its sustainable ecosystem for future generations, not only do we need more sustainable products, but we also need the companies and organizations to measure, capture and improve their sustainable performance. Profit and purpose need to go hand in hand and the results will be seen. With clarity and a commitment to hold the vision and mission to align with the purpose, we would ensure profit along with purpose. A very important step to achieve this is sustainable benchmarking. The second part of the article will be focusing on this subject.
[1]: David Quamman (January 28, 2020) We Made the Coronavirus Epidemic https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/opinion/coronavirus-china.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytopinion
[2]: John Vidal, Enisa (March 18, 2020) Destroyed Habitat Creates the Perfect Condition for Coronavirus to emerge https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/destroyed-habitat-creates-the-perfect-conditions-for-coronavirus-to-emerge/
[3],[4]: (Accessed on February 9, 2021)Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda
[5]: (Accessed on January 27, 2021) Stakeholder Capitalism : Building the Future https://www.weforum.org/events/the-davos-agenda-2021/?stream=day-one-davos-agenda&stream-item=coming-up-stakeholder-capitalism-building-the-future#stream-header
