Is your business making progress on mitigating its financial risks due to sustainability impacts?

What constitutes meaningful progress towards sustainable development?

That which cannot be measured, cannot be improved. This is a basic lesson that has stood the test of time in every field of human endeavor.

Sustainable Development bears no exception.  If humans are to have a fair chance at overcoming the dire existential threats posed to human life and human business endeavors by climate change, we must apply the same basic principles for positive change.

The first step for every business is to objectively measure, document and report its impacts on the world around it, i.e. the economy, society and the environment, including its greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint, as well as the impacts of the world on its long-term financial success, hence the risk entailed therein. Reporting must be done using objective, thorough, global industry standards such as GRI, IFRS, ESRS, ASRS, etc.

Once the baseline is well established and documented, then the meaningful work of determining what to improve upon to reduce the financial risk can begin, to ensure long-term business success, sustainability and survivability. 

From this point on, a carefully thought out and prioritized transition plan can chart out a solution implementation roadmap for sustainability improvements to be made while balancing short-term investments with short-term and long-term financial benefits and reduction of risk. Such a roadmap is to be created and implemented in alignment with a business’ materiality analysis which essentially outlines its business priorities over time as defined by its various stakeholders, e.g. investors, customers, suppliers, employees, community members.

These improvements that measurably move a business towards sustainable development can comprise of

·      efficiency improvements (energy, process, cost, etc.), 

·      technology adaptations of commercially available technologies that reduce negative impacts and increase positive impacts, or

·      innovations that hasten the commercialization of meaningful technologies that contribute to sustainable development.

SELE Solutions is your solution partner for each of the essential steps above. Engage us to conduct a Sustainability Workshop to get you kick-started on sustainable development, regardless of your starting point.