Sustainability: Creating Value Using the Five Basics
Pojasek, Robert
(Capaccio Environmental Engineering, Inc.)
To implement sustainability strategy or to address end user customer sustainability initiatives, you will need to focus on something we call the “five basics”: 1. Address all three responsibilities – environmental, social and economic – all at the same time; 2. Focus on operational risk management and business continuity; 3. Use the leading indicators from proven performance frameworks as well as the popular lagging indicators found in the Global Reporting Initiative taking into account your stakeholder interests; 4. Embed sustainability in a management system to make it part of what every employee does every day and to comply with all legal and other requirements; and 5. Use perocess improvement methods to deliver continual improvement. Each of these five basics can be integrated into the management system to create a sustainability operating system. It is important to align the sustainability operating system to the sustainability strategy or customer requirements and stakeholder interests. Sustainability is all about good business. The sustainability value proposition should be clear. Information from the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association and the International Society for Sustainability Professionals will be used to support the material presented.