Sustainability is fundamentally about meeting the needs of today’s earth without compromising its tomorrow – ensuring that we manage and protect for the present while also preserving plentiful biodiversity. There has been enormous progress on net zero goals, value, and purpose-based goals in the past decade, especially with NGOs like WWF backing Science Based Targets, Race to Zero, Greenpeace, and Climate Cardinals, which have advocated policies for climate injustice and campaigns focused on preserving rainforests, slowing pipeline construction, and spreading sustainability awareness within communities and academia, expanding a business perspective to ecological intelligence and social justice.
Sustainability is fueled by doing good and doing well, being transparent to be more trustworthy, strengthening accountability for replenishment, and preserving nature in light of what we take. Integrating this approach as a holistic strategic vision and solutions will serve to embed the mindset in all aspects of the value chain such as design, engineering, manufacturing, production, and logistics, supported by IT, retail, stakeholders, and ratings through the value chain fueled by innovation, creativity, and intelligence. Green became the new Gold more than a decade ago, followed by a period of globalization of supply chains and a cradle-to-cradle system where beauty and creativity intertwined into reimagining the things we make.
Recent notable innovations include All by Unilever, a concentrated detergent with reduced shelf space for more efficient logistics; paper straws and cups in Disney parks; colored blue, brown, and green recycling bags for plastics; landfill remediation and organic materials in Denali National Park and Preserve; environmentally-friendly stores like Sprouts; educational podcasts in middle schools on environmental consequences such as the Exxon Mobil spill in Puget Sound, where you still hear orphaned orcas circling; paradigm shifts leading to lifestyle and livelihood changes such as in coral reef management for local fishermen; plastic money in Australian plastic money; and downcycling/upcycling artist studios that weave nature, art, and science together.
More than 13,000 chemicals have been found to be harmful and banned by the REACH and RoHS regulations including antimony in automotive, and parabens and sulphates in the cosmetics industry. A more interesting development is the advent of ayurvedic and wholly natural cosmetics without the use of any chemicals whatsoever, an intriguing natural solution to the chemicals problem. Nature recycles, composts, and self-sustains, such as in cherry blossom trees that shed, recycle, and replenish themselves annually. There is a strong need for more sustainable solutions like creating electricity from snow/sea water, or bio-based natural products or oysters cleaning NYC waterways, complemented by a long-term vision of regulating consumption of resources. Educating stakeholders on the benefits of sustainability elevates the corporate culture to be inclusive and diverse, socially, culturally, naturally, morally, politically, technologically, legally, and financially.
AI-based flood forecasting, liquid hydrogen, the green and blue economy, efficient data centers, self-driving cars, drone-fed grocery deliveries, cryptocurrencies, and AI sensor-based disruptive technologies all contribute to the interlinked web of sustainability. European municipalities offer free compostable recycle bags to communities reducing landfill, while the US prefers to use waste management to recycle existing bags, and compostable biobags are still an Amazon reality. Buying carbon offsets is an effective way to fund these meaningful nature-based projects all around the world like Pachama and One tribe. Trading environmental commodities, voluntary carbon markets, and trading platforms like STX are in full swing in Europe, an interesting concept yet to take shape in the US, except for the cap-and-trade program in California. Similarly, carbon taxes are more prevalent in Europe and Canada, but these mechanisms could help curb emissions greatly in the US, with greater support from lawmakers. The adoption of renewable energy is growing with greater utilization of solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, nuclear, marine, fuel cells, and biofuels. Most of these are being harnessed well in the US except for tidal and marine energy. The US has abundant coastlines to harness this ocean energy in the future, an area in which China is already leading. For many energy users, the budget, size, location, water, wind, and other resources available nearby will dictate their choice of renewables.
Smart factories and AI and satellite-based environmental solutions can forewarn and prepare for disasters, weather changes, operate remotely, understand patterns in utility consumption, streamline, link and digitize processes, train models using qualitative and quantitative data for statistical quality process control, and use AI-based assistants for lesser human intervention. Eco-efficiency is a great way to measure sustainability progress by doing more with less, while digital twin technology is leading the world in creating value through digital mapping of the manufacturing world, helping reduce waste, improving efficiencies, and forecasting failures. Interesting stock markets to watch are the DowJones4good and FTSE4good, both aiming to track companies for impact investing and responsible stakeholders. SAP’s newest Control Tower and IBM’s Envizi both aim at an integrated solution and a Sustainability Management Suite that offers promising dashboards for carbon calculators, resources tracking, and benchmarking through disclosure. Sustainability has penetrated every single industry in the last decade. Within industries like travel and hospitality where consumption of resources is enormous, sustainability plays a critical role in cruises, hotels, and theme parks, to name a few. It will be interesting to see self-charging electric cruise ships and trucks, amidst all the advances being made in sustainable aviation and ground transport.
All told, preserving basic human rights and ethics, while maintaining justice in17 SDGs of the United Nations Global Compact and supported by adequate governance, can help create a holistic approach to Sustainability. A 360-degree view of sustainability will involve all its subtler aspects and enable the building of a more sustainable world.
