What is sustainability and sustainable development in business?

What is sustainability?‍

Many people probably associate sustainability with the environment and climate impact when the word comes into play. And they're not necessarily wrong, but sustainability means much more than that. As early as 1987, the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development defined in its report”Our future together.” sustainable development as “a development that satisfies the needs of today without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to satisfy their needs”.

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And then what does that mean?

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Of course, you can read a lot of information in the quote, and it quickly becomes clear that sustainability as a concept can deal with a lot of things. Therefore, we have chosen to divide sustainability into the following three different areas or dimensions:

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• Ecological sustainability
• Social sustainability 
• Economic sustainability

Together, these three areas describe what sustainability is and means.

What is ecological sustainability?

Ecological sustainability is the foundation for all sustainability work, and therefore sets the framework for the other two sustainability dimensions. Ecological sustainability is first and foremost about the Earth's ecosystems and how we should act to nurture our natural resources in the long term, so that they can continue to support both current and future generations. Issues related to food and energy production, water supply, air pollution and the preservation of the various ecosystems of the animal and plant kingdom are examples of issues central to ecological sustainability.

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For companies, ecological sustainability is primarily about trying to reduce their ecological footprint or negative environmental impact in various ways.

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What is social sustainability?

Social sustainability describes the human dimension of sustainability. This is about promoting greater well-being, more equitable, equal and equal distribution of power, and respect for human rights and individual needs.

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For companies, social sustainability is about making demands on the supply chain and meeting compliance with guidelines and policies that ensure human rights and fair living conditions. But it is at least as much about the more immediate social sustainability, at the company itself - about the health and well-being of employees and about working for an equal and equal organisation.‍

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What is economic sustainability?‍

Financial sustainability can really mean different things depending on who you ask. Some argue that economic sustainability is about economic growth that does not entail negative consequences for ecological or social sustainability. Others argue that economic sustainability is really only about increasing the total amount of capital, regardless of the consequences of growth on social or ecological sustainability.

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Due to the widely differing interpretations, concepts such as “green growth”, “green economy” or “circular economy” have become popular to use instead. Green growth is more about investments in, for example, environmental technologies that also drive economic development from a traditional economic perspective and therefore increase the scope for sustainable development at all levels.

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A green economy refers to an economic system that improves social sustainability while reducing ecological burdens, while a circular economy somewhat simplistically describes an economic system that reuses natural resources efficiently.

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Regardless of which definition of economic sustainability you choose to use, long-term thinking is a central part of all definitions. Then the definitions differ as to what the long term should consist of: is it more classical economic long-term, about building capital with long-term investments, about environmental long-term, or is it a combination of both? In all cases, precisely long term the key word, and you can therefore say that economic sustainability is about long-term sustainability, without risking stepping on any toes.

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‍What is Sustainable Entrepreneurship?‍

The European Commission defines sustainable entrepreneurship as “taking responsibility for the impact of your own business on society”. With support in the three dimensions of sustainability, it means taking responsibility for what happens within the walls of your own organization, but also for what happens outside.

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What sustainable entrepreneurship means more specifically for your business depends of course on the type of company you are and in which industry you operate. But can you as a business let the sustainability dimensions and the Global Sustainability Goals By defining their strategies and forming the basis for their decisions, great steps have been taken towards becoming more sustainable. ‍

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‍‍Agenda 2030 - support for sustainable entrepreneurship‍

The United Nations has chosen to call its global sustainability goals Agenda 2030. In short, it is described as the most ambitious plan for creating sustainable development that the world has ever adopted. The plan outlines 17 objectives, with 169 more concrete milestones, which together aim at eradicating poverty, halting climate change, reducing inequalities and creating peaceful and secure societies.

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Companies have a central role in achieving these goals, and companies that want to improve their sustainability work can benefit from the goals listed in Agenda 2030. In contrast, it is rarely very effective and sometimes not even possible for a single company to work on all 17 objectives at the same time, let alone with all 169 targets at the same time.

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Instead, a better strategy is to select the areas that are most relevant to your own business and work more focused on the issues where you have the greatest chance of making significant contributions.

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For more tips on how to create a relevant and effective sustainability strategy for your particular company, please read our article → 4 steps to develop a sustainability strategy.‍

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Want to learn more about how you can make your business or office more sustainable?‍

At XLNT Workplace, everything we do is imbued with sustainability. Our entire business is based on a sustainability mindset and we have extensive experience in offering services and comprehensive solutions to the office that are both sustainable and of high quality. We are happy to help you in your work to transform into a more sustainable business and are happy to provide tips on how your workplace can be adapted from a sustainability perspective.

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Get in touch and we'll take it from there.