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Building your CSR strategy on the foundations of sustainable development: it's a hot topic of conversation, but do you really know what it means? What is sustainable development? What actions should companies take to align themselves with the 17 UN goals?
Sustainable development: definition
The notion of sustainable development first appeared in the Brundtland Report, at the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development. It was at this point that the first definition of sustainable development emerged:
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
This report and definition identify the three pillars of sustainable development:
- The economic pillar
- The ecological pillar
- The social pillar
Organizations rely on these three pillars to implement their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) strategy, but how can they be defined in concrete terms?
The economic axis
This axis is based on the ability of companies to develop a responsible economic system. The aim is to create well-paid jobs while limiting the impact of their production on the environment.
The environment
The environmental pillar of sustainable development encourages companies to develop their business while preserving the environment, which means :
- Accurately assess their consumption of natural resources, in order to reduce or optimize it.
- Reduce their emissions, from greenhouse gases to various types of waste.
To implement an effective CSR strategy, it is essential to know precisely the impact of all the organization's activities. To this end, a corporate carbon footprint is one of the diagnostics that must be carried out in order to make a rigorous and serious commitment to sustainable development.
The social axis
To be in line with the social pillar, a company must satisfy the need for equity and respect for individual rights, i.e. the need for health, education, housing and prevention of exclusion.
For a company, this means contributing to the well-being of its stakeholders (well-being of employees at work, transparency and honesty with customers and suppliers, etc.), fighting against exclusion (gender equality, helping people back into society, ensuring that premises are accessible to people with reduced mobility, etc.) or promoting solidarity (purchase of labelled raw materials, partnerships with local associations, etc.).
Developing this social axis clearly improves the quality of life at work and the well-being of employees, and can be an excellent way of retaining talent for longer within the organization.
The overall vision of sustainable development
The three pillars of sustainable development are interdependent. If one of the pillars is less developed than the others, then the company's CSR strategy will not be considered sustainable. It must be able to act on all three areas simultaneously, as sustainable development is a multi-disciplinary concept.
The 3 axes of sustainable development are commonly represented by interconnected circles.
Sustainable development lies at the crossroads of these three areas.
Be in line with the UN's sustainable development goals.
To encourage sustainable development, the UN has set 17 goals to save the world(https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/fr/objectifs-de-developpement-durable/) organized according to the 3 pillars mentioned above. These include goals for :
- Clean, affordable energy
- Sustainable cities and communities
- Responsible consumption and production
- Measures to combat climate change
Companies have a major role to play in achieving these goals. Indeed, a good CSR strategy can drastically reduce the problems identified by the UN. Reducing your company's carbon emissions is one of the most effective ways of achieving these goals. Of course, to improve your company's impact over the long term, you first need to measure your initial impact. Carrying out regular carbon assessments is therefore a necessary starting point for building a coherent and effective CSR strategy.
How to implement a sustainable CSR strategy?
It's sometimes hard to know where to start when you want to put sustainable development at the heart of your CSR strategy. To help you, here is a non-exhaustive list of actions you can take:
- Regularly carry out a carbon footprint of all your activities in order to track your emissions. A carbon assessment platform like Traace can help you in this process. In addition to measuring your carbon footprint, the solution also enables you to design emissions trajectories and track the progress of your reduction actions. On the one hand, this type of measure has a positive economic impact on your company, by controlling dependence on carbon-based materials, the price of which continues to rise. On the other hand, reducing the impact of your activities on the environment helps to limit global warming, and thus the considerable modification of ecosystems and our societies (rising temperatures, migration movements...).
- Recycling your waste with local partners can reduce your carbon emissions, as well as the pollution caused by dumping waste in the environment.
- Encourage your employees to use bicycles and walking as a means of transport. Your company can also purchase bicycles and make them available to its employees, echoing the social dimension (improving QWL) of sustainable development.
