Feature
ENVIRONMENT
Integrating sustainability BY IAN DAVIES, STEVE FOWLER AND MARK BOULT
New guidance aims to help risk managers bring together their risk and sustainability efforts
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nly a few months ago, the general consensus was that the world would all be driving battery electric vehicles (EVs) in only a few years’ time and that petrol and diesel would be consigned to history. How quickly things change. There is now an increasing realisation that EVs aren’t as green as had previously been assumed, particularly when today’s power generation systems and the environmental cost of recycling older vehicles are concerned. These factors, coupled with the higher
construction cost of EVs, poor public charging infrastructures and better understanding of alternatives such as synthetic petrol vehicles, are all combining to change the playing field. People like simple solutions, but the picture is often more complex. What looks to be the best way forward will change as we learn from our experience and research. Good risk management involves continually understanding what is happening today, challenging what we are doing and keeping our eyes open and looking into the future. For risk managers this
makes us think about such things as understanding our context and environment, reassessing risks, identifying emerging risks, scenario planning and horizon scanning.
Risk and sustainability Sustainability should always be looked at on a long-term basis, taking into account all factors of a system, organisation or indeed a vehicle, to be properly understood. Short-term fixes or taking a narrow view of a system or product will rarely give the right longer-term result. This is no different to the
Good risk management involves continually understanding what is happening today, challenging what we are doing and keeping our eyes open and looking into the future Enterprise Risk
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