INDUSTRY INSIGHT
The Business of
SUSTAINABILITY By Andrea Ruiz Hays
Organizations Look at Impact on People, Planet and Profit
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ustainability has become a new buzzword for many organizations, and thankfully it’s becoming common among individuals as well. We see large corporations committing to sustainability goals because their consumers, their brands and even the stock market demand it. While these large organizations have a global environmental impact, it can easily be stated that midsize and small organizations have an even more significant role to play in sustainability because they exist within their local communities. What does it mean to be sustainable? The United Nations (U.N.) World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainability assumes that resources are finite and should be used in a manner of respect, conservation and harmony. Simply put, sustainability is about our people and the planet’s resiliency toward the future. In 2015, the U.N. adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), creating a road map for the future peace and prosperity of the people and our planet. Here are few examples of the SDGs: affordable and clean energy; responsible consumption and production; and industry, innovation and infrastructure. Each SDG includes priorities, impact and goals for the future. How is your organization looking at sustainability and preparing for the future? Is sustainability something your organization has recently talked about or started to look at recently? If you have, that’s great. Keep going by identifying
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ANDREA RUIZ HAYS is founder and chief strategist for Eco Strategies Group in Orlando, which is committed to supporting the sustainability journey of all organizations. She can be reached for a complimentary consultation at andrea@ecostrategiesgroup.com
your next set of targets. If you haven’t, don’t worry, you’re not the only one. There’s certainly a lot to consider within an organization when it comes to which areas of sustainability your business should focus on first. Do you reach for the objective with the largest impact or start with the easier targets? I always encourage my clients to take a deep look into their organization and assess their “triple bottom line,” their impact on 1) customers, vendors and employees (people); 2) waste, energy, emissions, water and natural resources (planet); and 3) efficiencies that could be gained or realized (profit). Many organizations identify this through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. However, this is not limited to large entities such as corporations. All organizations have a social responsibility. I always say it shouldn’t be only Fortune 500 organizations that have these objectives and tools to help them reach their targets. All organizations (and people, too) have a social responsibility, and we will see our greatest achievements as a collective participating group of people. This is one of the reasons I left my 20year career at the Walt Disney World Resort, where I was helping lead the company’s environmental programs. I saw a profound change occur once people were given the right tools, training and resources to make significant positive changes in their business operations and achieve identified targets, and in many cases even
