Sustainability is about being on the right side of history rather than being approached as an opportunity.
To get eyeballs to sustainability, sometime back, sustainability as opportunity line of communication started. Over the years, it has gained wide popularity as a financial and economic intervention rather than a responsibility purview.
Take the term ‘sustainability management’; you will find the statements below very common:
- Sustainability is not a threat but an opportunity.
- View sustainability as an opportunity, not as a problem.
- Sustainability is not a cost; it’s an opportunity.
- Sustainability is not a constraint; it’s an opportunity.
The problem with overselling this narrative is that it discounts the importance of the crisis we face as humans. When you breathe polluted air, you can’t drink water without extensive treatment; you don’t get to eat anything that doesn’t have traces of pesticides, and think of the pace at which it is deteriorating. Do we look at the option of having an opportunity to act? The opportunity framing is self-defeating as the solution needs to address the issues’ root causes.
There is a Malayalam proverb which rightly describes this opportunity narrative.
പുര കത്തുമ്പോൾ വാഴ വെട്ടുക
pura kathumbol vazha vettuka
(Cutting the plantain tree when the house is burning)
The proverb says that when there is an emergency (like a fire), be selfish and secure what you can (although it does not belong to you). The proverb implies that when the fire is at a common place, the selfish tries to secure what is not his.
Less effort and more sustainable impact sounds too good. If it were so, everyone would have jumped onto it. Shouldn’t we ask if it is business as usual and many others have already done it? Why are we still in this state of affairs? A majority of activities listed in any sustainability report will fall into this criterion. Ease of doing should not be the criteria for creating a sustainable impact; it must be only based on the nature and scale of the impact. However, even sustainability standard-setting bodies are slowly turning around for ease of compliance—for example, the recent turnaround of SBTi on offsets related to scope 3 emissions[1]. SBTi has decided to extend the use of environmental attribute certificates to abatement of Scope 3-related emissions beyond the current limits. It goes on to say that SBTi will not embark on validating carbon credits quality. This change is a result of consultations, as SBTi claimed. It is the usual story when the requirements were defined with the key principle of sustainability context and later diluted for ease of operation for companies. When it comes to financial targets, there must be audacious goals, but when setting up environmental goals, they goals should be realistic, which indicates the ease of achievement.
This opportunity narrative is, at best, a half-truth. What they are not saying is that the economics include the valuation of natural and social capital. That is the right way to look at economics and not just through the financial capital view. But they stop at half-truths and sprinkle some cute examples where sustainability efforts make short-term financial gains. It is a proven bait. But what happens is that the efforts stop at those initiatives that make short-term financial returns and nothing beyond. That is never sustainability.
We can argue that quick wins create momentum that motivates them to go for big later. However, the urgency around many aspects of sustainability makes the classic Pareto analytics. It is those vital few and trivial many. For example, just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 6 of the 193 countries contribute 70% of all GHG emissions. Energy consumption is the most significant source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for a whopping 75.6% worldwide. If we go with Pareto analytics, we should focus on the vital few. Attending to these vital few cannot be done through picking only opportunities.
Whether it is political or corporate leadership, we must understand that the strides toward a sustainable future must be long and the pace of stride fast. There is no shortcut for a sustainable future. It is common sense that complex problems require more change management, which can be challenging and uncomfortable. Tough problems require full leadership attention and personal commitment. The phrase ‘low-hanging fruit’ is ubiquitous in organizations where they think bigger challenges will fade or become easy to tackle once they start the journey through baby steps. It is a mirage.
The “baby steps” and “low hanging fruit” responses that sustainability professionals often receive from leadership are nothing but myopic visions. They result from not seeing the bigger picture, especially when it comes to environmental and social matters. This vision disregards intergenerational equity. In the last century, we have accelerated the damage, but when it comes to restoring, we would like to take baby steps.
Sustainability as an opportunity frame gives the option of choice; one can opt out or even decide to take baby steps or pluck only the low-hanging fruit, which is the danger. Sustainability is a moral responsibility that needs to be self-imposed and ingrained into policy and business models. It requires a big transformation in the leader’s mindset. Sustainability is not about opportunity but being on the right side of history.
[1]https://sciencebasedtargets.org/news/statement-from-the-sbti-board-of-trustees-on-use-of-environmental-attribute-certificates-including-but-not-limited-to-voluntary-carbon-markets-for-abatement-purposes-limited-to-scope-3
” Opportunity” talk is to make Sustainablity palatable for the corporates. An appeasement for the ever greedy world. Even after all the awareness today among all & sundry about global warming , finances don’t come at concession. Still going after relatively lower hanging fruit of RE. Opportunity face is for the reluctant, for the non- believer.
Santosh, u have taken a complicated subject, that many just don’t comprehend, and made it so easy to understand. U have put your finger on the right buttons. Now where do we go from here? How can this become a movement so as to have the desired impact?
The problem is also that we are trying to become sustainable sitting inside the same systems and processes that created the challenge. The opportunity narrative is stating that the kind of capitalism that created it can cure it. It requires big changes and it will not happen immediately. But the work has to start from foundation. Accounting cannot be taught in the conventional manner, it needs to integrate natural and social capital accounting. MBA cannot be taught in the same conventional manner and have a guest lecture on sustainability. No, business needs to be taught to internalize environmental and social externalities. Law needs to taught with intergenerational rights. There has to be some big policy shifts. GDP cannot be the measure of progress because if we consume more, produce more and waste more, GDP increases. CEO’s should be accountable for long term and quarterly results should move out.
For these policy shifts we need social movements, consumer movements. The sustainability integration to education should create a new norm of progress.
I hope I am making sense.
Well and truly boldly and bravely presented.Ref.to a Malayali proverb sums up all.’quick fixes,low hanging fruits,baby steps’ though easy to do,would deviate d focus.