Sustainability – What can it mean for your business?

We all want to live sustainably and sustainability has been a buzzword in the business world for a number of years. However its usually been developed as part of a marketing exercise and hasn’t been used to drive the business forward. The concept of sustainability, implemented properly can, at the very least, be a significant driver of savings and, if fully implemented, can become the Business Plan for an organisation.

The best known definition of sustainability comes in the context of ‘sustainable development’ from the UN Brundtland Commission of 1987:

“sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The diagram above illustrates the integrated nature of the concept of Sustainability. It brings together the three main impacts of any business, Economic, Environmental and Social. This ability to bring together all aspects of the management of an organisation under one concept is very powerful and allows key business decisions on BAT, suppliers, customers, society, health & safety or investment etc. to have the ‘is this sustainable?’ test applied.

We are helping many successful businesses in Ireland to use the Sustainability concept to drive savings, ensure compliance, increase sales and build value.

For more information on implementing Sustainability for your organisation please contact Gerard Kelly on 058-51155.