innovation - Sustainability Academy

CEOs are plagued with sustainability demands — noisy headlines which keep them awake at night.

CSE’s 2018 research Sustainability (ESG) Reporting Trends North America 2018 focuses on the influence of Sustainability on Financial Results. We break down the data by sector. Taking an example from telecom, the most material issues which keep telecom CEOs on edge include:

Sustainable product design
Inclusion and diversity
Ethical Governance
Privacy and Security
Customer service and transparency
Talent management
Waste and recycling
Energy and emissions

What do these issues have in common? They all manifest as long-term risk.

One of the most challenging long-term risks, particularly from investors’ viewpoint, is climate change. With PG&E;s bankruptcy attributed to climate change by the Wall Street Journal, financial analysts are taking heed. Climate change risks affect volatile markets, supply chains, the urban centers where companies place factories and draw employees, not to mention the hazards to shipping and distribution conduits.

As we posted in Step Aside Fortune 500: ESG Rankings Are Key to Corporate Growth, investment rankings are influenced by sustainability considerations. Fitch Ratings integrated scoring system includes ESG criteria. According to Fitch, about 3 percent of a rating’s derivation is directly attributed to an ESG issue, and 19 percent is influenced by at least one ESG concern.

Companies with sustainability reports and an actively implemented sustainability strategy can mitigate long-term risks such as climate change. Sustainability can be a driver for stakeholder engagement, innovation and organizational change.

Are CEOs putting their resources in the right place? CSE’s experience can help C-suite leaders answer this question. CSE research highlights findings from many sectors including:

Energy & Energy Utilities
Mining & Construction
Food & Beverage
Healthcare
Transportation
Financial Services

There is a link between Sustainability Reporting and Financial Performance at the corporate level. No longer is financial performance based solely on quarterly returns. CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and management at all levels must be alert to long-term sustainability on near-term decision making.

Want to learn more about how you can leverage your sustainability efforts to mitigate long-term risk? Attend the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) Sustainability (ESG) Leadership Training Workshop for C-Suite Executives, in NYC on Monday September 30^th – Tuesday October 1^st, 2019. CSE specializes in global sustainability consulting, research and training. Clients include governments, NGOs and Fortune 500 companies. CSE is accredited by CMI and is a GRI organizational stakeholder.

Although the culture of CSR seems to be rapidly growing in the UAE region, industry moguls and multi-national organizations need to catch up with the rest of the world and include CSR and the UN SDG’s in their operations.

During the CSR Forum that took place last week, an in-depth discussion took place of the industry best practices and the impact of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on innovation and investment.

The 17 UN SDG’s are a global call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. They also include climate action, economic inequality and innovation, among others.

After it’s sold out events in London, Toronto, NYC and Houston CSE will present in Dubai the Global Advanced Certified CSR Practitioner Program this November 11 – 12, 2018. The UN SDG’s, planning and thinking ahead in order to maintain a climate and sustainability plan is on CSE’s agenda along with Case Studies, Supply Chain, Corporate Responsibility and Corporate Communications.

Habiba Al Marashi, President and CEO of Arabia CSR network, said: “We are witnessing a sea change in the culture, mindset and readiness to adopt CSR, and not as a way of looking good.”

The UN SDG’s demand attention, and the adoption of CSR practices in every corporation. Our next CSE Certified CSR Practitioner Program (Advanced Edition 2018) will be in Dubai, this November 11 – 12, 2018. For more information, visit www.cse-net.org or email [email protected].

The 43^rd annual G7 Summit was held last week, on May 26 – 27, 2017. The location this year was Taormina in Sicily, Italy. The decision to hold the event in Sicily – and in particular in Taormina was to highlight the capacity to unite hope and hospitality in a single shared effort. The attendees of the 43rd summit included the leaders of the seven G7 member states as well as European Union representatives.

Improving the Conditions for Economic Growth Worldwide through Innovation & Sustainability

The mission of this year’s summit was ‘Building the Foundations of Renewed Trust’. The agenda was based on three fundamental pillars: 1) Citizen Safety; 2) Economic, Environmental and Social Sustainability and the Reduction of Inequalities; 3) Innovation, Skills and Labor in the Age of the next Production Revolution.

More specifically, the G7 Summit placed a great emphasis on how Innovation and Sustainability will be key drivers in shaping the future patterns of industrial development and in guiding the transition towards a digitized, innovative, low-emissions and more circular economy. The Business world should be concerned by the challenges the planet is confronted with, and should be fully committed to conciliating economic growth, job creation and environmental sustainability.

Climate Change & the future of the Paris Agreement

With respect to the crucial issue of climate change, the Group of Seven (G7) leaders have said in their final communique that they had failed to bridge differences with US President Donald Trump – and that the U.S.A. was unable to join other countries in committing to the Paris Agreement.

“The United States of America is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics,” the communique reads. “Understanding this process, the heads of state and of government of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom and the presidents of the European Council and of the European Commission reaffirm their strong commitment to swiftly implement the Paris Agreement,” it added.

G7 Nations Should Lead the Transition to a Low Carbon Economy

The G7 nations are responsible for 30 percent of coal-generated power worldwide – and as a result they should carry a large share of the responsibility for global greenhouse gas emissions. Talks about long-term growth are futile without taking into consideration the increasing scarcity of resources, which will push up prices and have an impact on the economy. The G7 nations ought to be a model for the necessary transition to a low-carbon economy.

To read the G7 Taormina Leaders’ Communiqué, please click here

Today, we live in a world where everything that surrounds us is driven and impacted by big data. As data gathering is becoming advanced, so is our ability to understand copious amounts at once. The corporate world can use Big Data in order to better understand the environmental impact of their operations and optimize their use of resources.

One “real world” problem that Big data analytics is being applied to right now is environment sustainability. Climate change is currently happening and there is nothing that can truly deny its existence. World leaders are discussing climate change at almost all major forums as the problem has moved to the forefront of world-scale issues. This is because it is affecting every country.

Human activity has proved to be the major cause of this change as CO2 emissions have heavily increased in recent years. While a major part of the climate change damage is irreversible, it is still possible to get some control over the global increase in temperature. Big data applications can be as relevant towards the cause of environment sustainability as they have been to other sectors, such as healthcare.

Understanding Environmental Impact and Resource Optimization through Big Data

Big data’s usefulness lies in its ability to help businesses understand and act on the environmental impacts that their operations are having. Big data’s potential impact on sustainability rests on its power to present a clear picture of the complete impact their operations are having.

An important application of Big Data is assessing environmental risks that the world faces right now or might possibly face in future. Another contribution of Big Data to the corporate world is its ability to help optimize usage of resources. Small improvements in efficiency due to resource optimization can result in large company savings.

Moving Towards Better Environmental Regulation

Big data can also be integrated with government policies to ensure better environmental regulation. Governments can now implement the latest technology and adopt real-time reporting of environmental quality data. This data can be used to monitor the emissions of large utility facilities.

Keeping track of how various business operations have an impact on the natural world gives way to new and innovative ways for bringing sustainability to an organization’s structure. Big Data is actively helping create a change, cut costs and boost long-term profitability in a resource-constrained world. That’s the real objective that every corporation should be aiming towards.