SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

Sustainability Report

Sustainability Report

Introduction

The increasing focus on sustainability within the corporate world is a phenomenon that continues to evolve and grow. Corporate sustainability is defined in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes as “a business approach that creates long term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. Corporate sustainability leaders achieve long term shareholders value by gearing their strategies and managements to harness the market's potential for sustainable products and services while at the same time successfully reducing and avoiding costs and risks”.

Corporate Sustainability and Benefits

Economic benefits, social responsibility and environmental protection belong together as an interdependent system. Social sustainability depends on economic sustainability and vice versa. Social and economic sustainability depend on environmental one. Of the three, environmental sustainability is the society's top priority and has a lot of coverage from both academics as well as corporate executives.

Environmental sustainability is a major global trend for the 21st century. It refers to the ability to maintain or improve the total quality of life, both now and in the future, and to reach a long-term stable situation in spite of short-term changes (Nijkamp and Soeteman, 1988). Another defines environmental sustainability as maintaining the rates of use of renewable resources so that it is sufficient for the next generation (Caldwell, 1998).

Economic sustainability refers to a system of production that generate just enough for present consumption levels without negatively affect future needs, given the environmental constraints and costs (Basiago, 1998; Khan 1995). In Thwink website, economic sustainability is defined as “the ability of an economy to support a defined level of economic production indefinitely”.

Issues in Sustainability

The concept of social sustainability embraces more diverse views than the other two types of sustainability. The most popular view of all is people-oriented. It strives to take future generation into consideration, and to live with the awareness that present actions make an impact on others (Pugh, 1996). It takes a larger worldview into consideration and its emphases are social integrity, stability and improvement in the quality of life. This interpretation of social sustainability is in line with the principles of sustainable development defined by the World Commission for Environment and Development (WECD) that “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” Corporate sustainability is an ongoing journey. Challenges and opportunities continue to emerge. One of the core challenges facing executives and managers is whether companies could sustainably enhance shareholders' values if they ignore the legitimate interests and needs of their key stakeholders. Even though sustainability is seen by many leading executives as a positive approach, not all of them have supported the program. Some act as leaders but others are indifferent. Sustainability policies within some corporations is treated as an act of compliance, of conforming to rules and regulations and doing what the law only requires them to do. However, this short-term view is no longer sustainable if companies are only focusing on financial gains while at the ...