QMS & EMS London

More than three-quarters of the EU's important natural habitats are classified as "unfavourable", with many species threatened with extinction, according to the European commission. The findings came in the commission's mid-term review of the EU biodiversity strategy , which aims to halt biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services by 2020. Much more needs to be done on the ground to translate policy into action, the commission said. It wants biodiversity to be integrated into policies on agriculture, forestry, fisheries, regional development and trade.

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. 

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.