Summary
Our interviews and roundtables indicate there is an increasing awareness globally that investment in sustainability is an essential part of planetary and organisational resilience. This has been driven by both shareholders (investors) and stakeholders (regulators, consumers, suppliers, and employees) demanding organisations have stronger ethical values and develop an environmental conscientiousness that respects planetary boundaries and social foundations. The emergence of more complex sustainability standards and regulation globally is embedding sustainable practices into an organisation’s governance, strategy, risk management, and performance metrics and targets.
Organisations have set forth on a sustainability journey from
a cost and compliance focus to a resilience and systemic risks focus,
siloed thinking to systems thinking, and
assessing financial performance to assessing performance in the wider economy and society, while understanding impacts on environment.
It’s too early to call whether this journey is a sufficient endeavour to address climate change and global sustainable resilience concerns. However, our ongoing research already reveals that organisations are developing more holistic approaches to integrating sustainability into cultures and ways of doing business.