Is sustainable development a necessary evil?

More and more companies apply sustainability to their operations. To most of us, the sustainable company means a business that in its day to day tasks tries to reduce the negative impact of its activity on the environment. However sustainable business in much more than that.

To fully understand the idea of sustainability one first must learn the definition of that word.  The original definition says that sustainable development is a ”development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs”.  Since the time the term first appeared in 1992 it has been changed numerous of times. However, the concept remains the same.

The basic idea of sustainable development is to not affect negatively the environment we are living in. Most known area of sustainable development is the environment since we are experiencing it widely declining since the Industrial Revolution. The state of natural habitat is being discussed for many years now and has been brought to public opinion. Recently the issue of exploitation of workers has been brought to life.

Governments and nonprofit organizations encourage companies to implement sustainable development in key, four areas (economic, social, environmental and governance). The ground concept of the sustainable development is the understanding that a company that functions in a certain environment is a part of said environment and thus should help maintain its well-being.

Many business owners fear that the costs of sustainable growth will put too much strain on company’s finances and will increase the overall cost of the production. As a result offered products will be less attractive to the customers as there will be need of increasing the prices.

However, studies show that companies which adopted sustainable development have register increase of overall sales and profit margin. Further than that, high – sustainable businesses outperformed annually low-sustainable companies by 4,8%.   As a reason for such good performance, the researchers quote businesses’ ability to engage the employees and create loyal customers.

Companies that are interested in sustainable development can join the United Nations Global Compact in reaching set goals. It is a voluntary initiative that helps companies around the globe achieving their sustainability goals. Together with business owners, the UNGC established  17 universal goals to be achieved by 2030. Among them, we can find a quality education, reducing inequalities, taking care of life below water and on land or reducing poverty.

The decision to become a sustainable business isn’t an easy one as committing to this trend requires re-arranging the works of the entire company. Nevertheless, in a world where much attention is being paid to environmental and social issues becoming a sustainable business will bring benefits in the long run. As on the market, we are dealing with educated consumers who choose the products based not only on their needs but also values of the company that produces said product. Since there is a variety of merchandise, a consumer will purchase the item that he most identifies with.

There is also another, a big advantage of complying with rules of sustainable development. That is a cleaner, healthier environment for our children and grandchildren to live in.