The answer is a YES! Let us see how.
Sustainability, as per Wikipedia, can be defined as the process of maintaining change in a balanced fashion, in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations. This means that we should use resources such that the present generation is comfortable, but at the same time we should preserve these resources for the future generations.
By now, we have formed a general idea regarding what Governance is. In business terms, it is basically managing everything going on in an organization efficiently and effectively and making sure that suitable compliances are being met on a regular basis.
When we think about it, sustainability and governance seem to be two vastly different notions that have no relationship with each other whatsoever. However, that is not the case.
We have damaged the Environment enough since the beginning of mankind and it has finally come to a point where if we continue living the way we are living, there might be no earth to live in, in the future. Issues like global warming and the thinning of the ozone layer are real and need to be given serious thought. Therefore, in today’s world, a responsible corporation is expected to be responsible about the environment as well. This means that they are expected to take strides in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving energy and water and meet other environmental goals.
As sustainability is ingrained into a company’s business model, there is a greater chance of generation of long term value for stakeholders and might also lead to ground breaking innovations in both the products being made and the services being offered.
We have realised that proper corporate governance is crucial to facilitate the efficient working of an organization and much attention has been paid to making the entire process supremely effective. Similarly, sustainability is important for a corporation to continue growing and prospering. It is the need of the hour and being sustainable is also “fashionable”.
It is important to make sure that the sustainability initiatives being undertaken by a business are not just carried out to satisfy the personal interests of the stakeholders but are being carried out to actually fuel the drive towards a sustainable future. Even if the company manages to effectively implement sustainable measures in the short term and reap its benefits, establishing a true sustainability strategy needs the commitment of an entire institution.
So, to actually have true sustainable principles at its core, a company needs to build a formal governance structure that aims to sustain and strengthen corporate environmental policies policies and programs with long term goals in mind.
In such a way an all round development can be achieved, which not only selfishly works towards achieving the best for a particular organization but also aims to give back something to the environment.
As more and more people become environment friendly, corporations which support the same cause will automatically gain more popularity and therefore see more growth compared to its competitors.
For governance, we can use software tools like VComply. Also, to ensure sustainability, certain compliances can be enforced with the help of this tool, and whenever anything goes haywire, you will be notified.
Always remember, no matter who you are- the CEO of a multimillion corporation or a clerk it should always be “Environment First”!
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