WHY BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability  is on the agenda of every organisation. Often, this is driven by  requirements from regulators, investors, or the need to demonstrate to  employees and customers alike that theirs is a responsible brand.  However, in most advanced companies, this reactive, compliance-driven  approach has been replaced with the recognition that commercial  sustainability and environmental sustainability are interdependent.

Defining  a concise problem statement around the issue of managing corporate  sustainability, however, remains a challenge. It involves many  stakeholders’ perspectives and causes of environmental impact vary  across industries and geographies. What we need is a solution framework  which can be leveraged to enable analytical interventions to deliver  end-to-end sustainability capabilities ‘as a service,’ in order to  transform enterprises into sustainable businesses across a broad range  of performance KPIs in Africa.

The Problem of Enterprise Environment, Social and Governance (ESG)

Climate  change, damaged ecosystems, and depleted natural resources have made  existing value chains and business models risky and unpredictable. A  transition to a less damaging and more resilient and resource-efficient  approach is vital for the future of every industry vertical. That is why  all organisations must not only produce ESG (environmental, social, and  corporate governance) reports but show exactly how they are making the  transition.

However,  defining a concise problem statement on managing corporate  sustainability is a challenge. The issue is complex, it encompasses many  stakeholder perspectives and their needs. There is no single cause of  environmental impact, and factors vary from market to market, both  vertical and geographic.

Currently,  enterprise sustainability investments are often tactical, and in  response to specific issues such as concerns about marine plastic. Many  organisations have made advances in reducing the environmental impact of  their operations, but this reactive approach can only achieve so much.  The need of the hour is to make systemic improvements across value  chains. Does the current approach enable corporations to balance the  strategic triple bottom line of profit, planet, and people? Certainly,  there is room for improvement. Hence, a need to step back from a  reactive approach to consider the overarching market requirements.

Reports  from industry associations and consultancies, as well as global  standards, define key sustainability topics, for organisations in  specific verticals, which are material to their business and  stakeholders. Although the verticals appear very different, there are a  lot of commonalities around the sustainability problems addressed by  enterprises with some industry-specific characteristics. The narrative  on sustainability for them primarily revolves around the following  themes:

• Responding to evolving climate risks
• Investing in new plants, infrastructure, and business models
• Operationalising sustainability approaches
• Handling supply chain impacts and the disruption of supply chains due to climate change
• Managing scarcity of materials
• Adapting to increasingly complex reporting and regulation.

Thus,  a need to create an African regional forum and network of practitioners, expertise and resources for the practice  of sustainability in communities across the continent. The African Business Sustainability Council was therefore created to fill this void. Read more About ABSUC