QMS & EMS London

Sustainability is now firmly on the global business agenda, but transformational change will only happen if efforts are scaled up, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) has concluded. Since its launch in 2000, membership of the corporate sustainability initiative has grown from 44 businesses to 8,041 businesses and 4,449 non-business participants. To assess progress, the UNGC commissioned consultants DNV GL to analyse the impact of the initiative over the past 15 years. The study found that a number of companies around the world have made important strides in operating more responsibly and innovating for a more sustainable future. However, Dr Henrik O. Madsen, group president and chief executive at DNV GL, warned: “It’s not sufficient that business alone is mobilising. We must offer arenas for collaboration, including for policymakers, science professionals and society at large.” 

The number of businesses and investors embracing sustainable capitalism is growing rapidly, according to former US vice-president Al Gore and business partner David Blood. Gore and Blood co-founded investment management company Generation Investment in 2004. Launching a white paper last May, they stressed how the business case for sustainable capitalism is stronger now than ever. 

Whether the new international standard for environmental management systems, ISO 14001:2015, strengthens the links between the EMS and organisational strategy, more effectively engages leaders and ensures environmental aspects are related to business risks and opportunities will largely depend on the quality of the internal and external audits. Due to be published in September, 14001:2015 is different from the previous version (2004) in several ways and these will challenge the competence of many auditors. The new section on organisational context will require assessors to develop a broader knowledge of the organisation they are auditing and the industry or sector in which they operate.

The number of laws and policies to limit climate change has nearly doubled since the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009, according to new research. The findings came in a study from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment . It covers 98 countries and the 28 member states of the EU, which together are responsible for 93% of global emissions.  At the end of 2014, these countries had implemented a total 804 climate laws and policies, up from 426 in 2009. In 1997, when the Kyoto protocol was agreed, these countries had just 54 climate laws and policies between them, the researchers said.

Despite the evolution of sustainable development or sustainability to include social and economic components, it is disappointing to find that many businesses and other organisations still tend to perceive it in solely environmental terms. Too many organisations do not consider sustainability in terms of opportunity. Successful entrepreneurs tend to have an opportunistic mind-set. But if sustainable development (SD) is perceived as being outside this and restricted to a risk control activity, leaders are unlikely to be significantly engaged and it will lack positive strategic management. What is required in such circumstances is a culture change. The problem is best described as a failure to find a means for developing and operating a strategy for SD in the management of organisations.