Sector Outline
The practice of companies recording, acting upon and reporting their environmental as well as financial performance is a recent introduction.
Iciar Gallo noted in a 2020 article:
‘The increasing global concern of environmental issues is relatively new; that is why Environmental Management Systems appeared just few decades ago.
It was in the 1960s when the environmental movement started to become popular, followed in 1972 by the first United Nations conference on the human environment in Stockholm. But it wasn’t until 1992, during the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, when the United Nations reached an agreement in order to protect the environment by reducing the negative impacts of business’ activities.
The same year, BSI group (British Standards Institution) published the world’s first Environmental Management Systems standard – the BS 7750. It provided the basis for the International Organization for Standardization to finally develop ISO 14001 – “Environmental Management Systems – specification and guidance for use” in 1996.
Before its first launch in 1996 of the ISO 14000 series of standards, organizations already voluntarily had been developing their own Environmental Management Systems in order to minimize the negative effects of their processes on the environment. However, they didn’t have the necessary tools to compare their environmental practices and impacts until ISO established ISO 14001 as a common framework for comparison.’
There are many approaches to, and frameworks for, ‘delivering’ sustainable development. Marilyn Waite, author of ‘Sustainability at Work: Careers that Make a Difference’, proposed a systems approach to sustainability, called SURF:
‘As a result of analyzing the on-the-ground reality of attempting to transform products and services for sustainable development, the author identified gaps and incoherencies that rendered a new framework necessary. The SURF framework: supply chain, user, relations, and future, enables a systems-level approach, and subsequently a systems-level impact, for decisions made even on a very microscopic level. Start-ups and large companies, public organizations and private ones alike will benefit from adopting this framework and adapting it to their unique needs. The framework was configured based on an extensive analysis of available definitions, understandings, and methods for implementing sustainable development on a concrete level, as well as through discussions with various industries…SURF moves beyond the triple-bottom-line approach to sustainable development to place emphasis on the quadruple bottom line.’
What Makes a Company Green?
According to the Green Business network website, ‘Green businesses adopt principles, policies and practices that improve the quality of life for their customers, employees, communities, and the planet’.
‘Green companies adopt principles and practices that protect people AND the planet. They challenge themselves to bring the goals of social and economic justice, environmental sustainability, as well as community health and development, into all of their activities — from production and supply chain management to employee relations and customer service.
To summarize, a green business goes about business in such a way that is environmentally green, sustainable and most likely with a low carbon footprint. A green business makes itself environmentally green through its buildings, workers, emissions, any packaging it may use and making sure the local community is not affected or polluted.’
Corporate Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Deloitte defined corporate sustainability in the following way:
‘Sustainability is responsibility for the impact that the organization exerts on its surroundings, in business, environmental and social terms. Conscious management of the impact translates into lower costs, improved external relations and better managed risks.
Sustainability is skilled positioning of the organization in the economic reality, taking account of the social and economic challenges, environmental opportunities and threats. The awareness that the organization functions within a broader framework, amid complex interrelations with many stakeholder groups, allows it to get ready and make use of the opportunities linked with sustainability.
Sustainability is awareness that each entity is surrounded by stakeholders. Building and cultivating good relations with stakeholders based on engagement and dialogue is crucial, because it not only affects the possibilities to manage risks, but also supports development and gives the organization a competitive edge.
Sustainability is transformation and development of the organization as well as creation of its long-term value based on innovation as well as intellectual and relation capital.’
Andrew Beattie (2019) outlined the three pillars of sustainability and what they mean to businesses:
‘Corporate sustainability has become a buzzword in companies big and small. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., McDonald’s Corporation and many of the true corporate giants have named sustainability as a key priority moving forward. Now other corporations are under pressure to show how they plan to commit and deliver their goods and services in a sustainable manner…
Corporate sustainability in investment can fall under the terms ESG for environment, social, and governance or the acronym SRI which stands for socially responsible investment.
Sustainability is most often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It has three main pillars: economic, environmental, and social. These three pillars are informally referred to as people, planet and profits.
The environmental pillar often gets the most attention. Companies are focusing on reducing their carbon footprints, packaging waste, water usage and their overall effect on the environment. Companies have found that have a beneficial impact on the planet can also have a positive financial impact…
The social pillar ties back into another poorly defined concept: social license. A sustainable business should have the support and approval of its employees, stakeholders and the community it operates in. The approaches to securing and maintaining this support are various, but it comes down to treating employees fairly and being a good neighbor and community member, both locally and globally.
The economic pillar of sustainability is where most businesses feel they are on firm ground. To be sustainable, a business must be profitable…profit at any cost is not at all what the economic pillar is about. Activities that fit under the economic pillar include compliance, proper governance and risk management.’
Carbon Neutrality
The environmental pillar of sustainability highlights carbon emissions reductions as an aim for companies. Carbon neutrality is a term often used within businesses.
An EU Press Release from 2019 defined carbon neutrality:
‘Carbon neutrality means having a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks. Removing carbon oxide from the atmosphere and then storing it is known as carbon sequestration. In order to achieve net zero emissions, all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions will have to be counterbalanced by carbon sequestration…A carbon sink is any system that absorbs more carbon than it emits. The main natural carbon sinks are soil, forests and oceans…
Another way to reduce emissions and to pursue carbon neutrality is to offset emissions made in one sector by reducing them somewhere else. This can be done through investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency or other clean, low-carbon technologies.’
Career and Job Links
UK
Sustainability First
www.sustainabilityfirst.org.uk
Sustainability Exchange
www.sustainabilityexchange.ac.uk/home
Lewis Davey
www.lewisdavey.com
Prospects Job Profile – Sustainability Consultant
www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/sustainability-consultant
Sustainababble podcast
www.sustainababble.fish
Cheeky Panda
www.thecheekypanda.com/UK
Europe
European Commission - Sustainable development
www.ec.europa.eu/environment/sustainable-development/index_en.htm
Sustain Europe
www.sustaineurope.com
CSR Europe
www.csreurope.org
Research Report by Board Agenda & Mazars in association with INSEAD Corporate Governance Centre ‘Leadership in Corporate Sustainability – European Report 2018’
www.insead.edu/sites/default/files/assets/dept/centres/icgc/docs/leadership-in-corporate-sustainability-european-report-2018.pdf
Asia
BSR ‘Sustainable Business in Asia: Five Trends That Will Impact the Decisive Decade’
www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/blog-view/sustainable-business-in-asia-five-trends-that-will-impact-decisive-decade
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), in partnership with the Climate
Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) and Ecodesk - The Reporting Exchange ‘Corporate and sustainability reporting in Singapore and Southeast Asia’
www.docs.wbcsd.org/2018/10/Corporate_and_sustainability_reporting_in_Singapore_and_Southeast_Asia.pdf
Merriden Varrall, Asia Society (2020) ‘ASEAN’s Way to Sustainable Development’
www.asiasociety.org/australia/aseans-way-sustainable-development
Africa
David Craig, World Economic Forum Agenda (2019) ‘It's in the numbers – how sustainability will support Africa's long-term growth and development’
www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/why-sustainability-is-critical-for-the-long-term-growth-and-development-of-africa
Africa Sustainability Matters
www.africasustainabilitymatters.com
United Nations (2019) ‘Corporate Sustainability Reporting in Least Developed Countries: Challenges and Opportunities for Action’
www.unohrlls.org/custom-content/uploads/2019/03/Occasional-Paper-6.pdf
United Nations Global Compact - Africa
www.unglobalcompact.org/engage-locally/africa
North America
Ed’s Clean Energy & Sustainability Jobs List
www.edsjobslist.com
The Environmental Career Center
www.environmentalcareer.com
B Work connects purpose driven jobseekers with meaningful work at companies that are using business as a force for good.
www.bwork.com
Sustainable Career Pathways, network of organisations
www.sustainablecareerpathways.com/networks
Sustainablebusiness.com
www.sustainablebusiness.com
Climatebase
www.climate.careers
GreenBiz Group
www.greenbiz.com
Greenbiz Jobs Board
www.jobs.greenbiz.com
Net Impact
www.netimpact.org
Net Impact Careers
www.netimpact.org/discover-your-career
www.netimpact.org/jobs
80,000 Hours aims to solve the most pressing skill bottlenecks in the world’s most pressing problems
www.80000hours.org
The Sustain O'bility One Stop
www.sustainobility.biz
(subscriptions to gain help with career development)
How I got my sustainability job
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSOLbfwYCTo
Career paths in sustainability
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1uQk7UVuvA
Weinreb Group Sustainability and ESG Recruiting
www.weinrebgroup.com
Corporate Knights, one of the world’s largest circulation magazines focused on the intersection of business and sustainability
www.corporateknights.com
Auden Schendler (2010) ‘Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution’
Amory Lovins and Rocky Mountain Institute (2011) ‘Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era’
Rocky Mountain Institute
www.rmi.org
Rocky Mountain Institute Careers
www.rmi.org/about/careers
International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP)
www.sustainabilityprofessionals.org
www.sustainabilityprofessionals.careerwebsite.com
Green America
www.greenamerica.org
South America
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) (2020) ‘Latin America’
www.wbcsd.org/Overview/Global-Network/Regions/Latin-America
IndexAmericas (Inter-American Development Bank)
www.indexamericas.iadb.org
Grantham Institute (2019) ‘How can Latin American countries shape a more sustainable future?’
www.granthaminstitute.com/2019/09/02/how-can-latin-america-countries-shape-a-more-sustainable-future
Oceania
Australian Council of Superannuation Investors limited (ACSI) (2018) ‘Corporate Sustainability Reporting in Australia: 2018’
www.acsi.org.au/research-reports/corporate-sustainability-reporting-in-australia-2018
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) (2018) ‘Sustainability reporting in Australia: jumping into the mainstream’
www.wbcsd.org/Programs/Redefining-Value/External-Disclosure/The-Reporting-Exchange/News/Sustainability-reporting-in-Australia-jumping-into-the-mainstream
Sustainable Business Network
www.sustainable.org.nz
Global
Green Jobs
www.greenjobs.co.uk/browse-jobs/sustainability-jobs
Green Recruitment Company
www.greenrecruitmentcompany.com
Josh’s Water Jobs
www.joshswaterjobs.com/jobs
Earth Hackers – monthly newsletter focusing on three key companies
www.earthhackers.substack.com/archive
Climate Coaching Alliance
www.climatecoachingalliance.org
CSO Magazine
www.csomagazine.com
Ibex Earth – ‘Student’ section includes information on internships, work experience and voluntary opportunities
www.ibexearth.com/about
The practice of companies recording, acting upon and reporting their environmental as well as financial performance is a recent introduction.
Iciar Gallo noted in a 2020 article:
‘The increasing global concern of environmental issues is relatively new; that is why Environmental Management Systems appeared just few decades ago.
It was in the 1960s when the environmental movement started to become popular, followed in 1972 by the first United Nations conference on the human environment in Stockholm. But it wasn’t until 1992, during the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, when the United Nations reached an agreement in order to protect the environment by reducing the negative impacts of business’ activities.
The same year, BSI group (British Standards Institution) published the world’s first Environmental Management Systems standard – the BS 7750. It provided the basis for the International Organization for Standardization to finally develop ISO 14001 – “Environmental Management Systems – specification and guidance for use” in 1996.
Before its first launch in 1996 of the ISO 14000 series of standards, organizations already voluntarily had been developing their own Environmental Management Systems in order to minimize the negative effects of their processes on the environment. However, they didn’t have the necessary tools to compare their environmental practices and impacts until ISO established ISO 14001 as a common framework for comparison.’
There are many approaches to, and frameworks for, ‘delivering’ sustainable development. Marilyn Waite, author of ‘Sustainability at Work: Careers that Make a Difference’, proposed a systems approach to sustainability, called SURF:
‘As a result of analyzing the on-the-ground reality of attempting to transform products and services for sustainable development, the author identified gaps and incoherencies that rendered a new framework necessary. The SURF framework: supply chain, user, relations, and future, enables a systems-level approach, and subsequently a systems-level impact, for decisions made even on a very microscopic level. Start-ups and large companies, public organizations and private ones alike will benefit from adopting this framework and adapting it to their unique needs. The framework was configured based on an extensive analysis of available definitions, understandings, and methods for implementing sustainable development on a concrete level, as well as through discussions with various industries…SURF moves beyond the triple-bottom-line approach to sustainable development to place emphasis on the quadruple bottom line.’
What Makes a Company Green?
According to the Green Business network website, ‘Green businesses adopt principles, policies and practices that improve the quality of life for their customers, employees, communities, and the planet’.
‘Green companies adopt principles and practices that protect people AND the planet. They challenge themselves to bring the goals of social and economic justice, environmental sustainability, as well as community health and development, into all of their activities — from production and supply chain management to employee relations and customer service.
To summarize, a green business goes about business in such a way that is environmentally green, sustainable and most likely with a low carbon footprint. A green business makes itself environmentally green through its buildings, workers, emissions, any packaging it may use and making sure the local community is not affected or polluted.’
Corporate Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Deloitte defined corporate sustainability in the following way:
‘Sustainability is responsibility for the impact that the organization exerts on its surroundings, in business, environmental and social terms. Conscious management of the impact translates into lower costs, improved external relations and better managed risks.
Sustainability is skilled positioning of the organization in the economic reality, taking account of the social and economic challenges, environmental opportunities and threats. The awareness that the organization functions within a broader framework, amid complex interrelations with many stakeholder groups, allows it to get ready and make use of the opportunities linked with sustainability.
Sustainability is awareness that each entity is surrounded by stakeholders. Building and cultivating good relations with stakeholders based on engagement and dialogue is crucial, because it not only affects the possibilities to manage risks, but also supports development and gives the organization a competitive edge.
Sustainability is transformation and development of the organization as well as creation of its long-term value based on innovation as well as intellectual and relation capital.’
Andrew Beattie (2019) outlined the three pillars of sustainability and what they mean to businesses:
‘Corporate sustainability has become a buzzword in companies big and small. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., McDonald’s Corporation and many of the true corporate giants have named sustainability as a key priority moving forward. Now other corporations are under pressure to show how they plan to commit and deliver their goods and services in a sustainable manner…
Corporate sustainability in investment can fall under the terms ESG for environment, social, and governance or the acronym SRI which stands for socially responsible investment.
Sustainability is most often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It has three main pillars: economic, environmental, and social. These three pillars are informally referred to as people, planet and profits.
The environmental pillar often gets the most attention. Companies are focusing on reducing their carbon footprints, packaging waste, water usage and their overall effect on the environment. Companies have found that have a beneficial impact on the planet can also have a positive financial impact…
The social pillar ties back into another poorly defined concept: social license. A sustainable business should have the support and approval of its employees, stakeholders and the community it operates in. The approaches to securing and maintaining this support are various, but it comes down to treating employees fairly and being a good neighbor and community member, both locally and globally.
The economic pillar of sustainability is where most businesses feel they are on firm ground. To be sustainable, a business must be profitable…profit at any cost is not at all what the economic pillar is about. Activities that fit under the economic pillar include compliance, proper governance and risk management.’
Carbon Neutrality
The environmental pillar of sustainability highlights carbon emissions reductions as an aim for companies. Carbon neutrality is a term often used within businesses.
An EU Press Release from 2019 defined carbon neutrality:
‘Carbon neutrality means having a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks. Removing carbon oxide from the atmosphere and then storing it is known as carbon sequestration. In order to achieve net zero emissions, all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions will have to be counterbalanced by carbon sequestration…A carbon sink is any system that absorbs more carbon than it emits. The main natural carbon sinks are soil, forests and oceans…
Another way to reduce emissions and to pursue carbon neutrality is to offset emissions made in one sector by reducing them somewhere else. This can be done through investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency or other clean, low-carbon technologies.’
Career and Job Links
UK
Sustainability First
www.sustainabilityfirst.org.uk
Sustainability Exchange
www.sustainabilityexchange.ac.uk/home
Lewis Davey
www.lewisdavey.com
Prospects Job Profile – Sustainability Consultant
www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/sustainability-consultant
Sustainababble podcast
www.sustainababble.fish
Cheeky Panda
www.thecheekypanda.com/UK
Europe
European Commission - Sustainable development
www.ec.europa.eu/environment/sustainable-development/index_en.htm
Sustain Europe
www.sustaineurope.com
CSR Europe
www.csreurope.org
Research Report by Board Agenda & Mazars in association with INSEAD Corporate Governance Centre ‘Leadership in Corporate Sustainability – European Report 2018’
www.insead.edu/sites/default/files/assets/dept/centres/icgc/docs/leadership-in-corporate-sustainability-european-report-2018.pdf
Asia
BSR ‘Sustainable Business in Asia: Five Trends That Will Impact the Decisive Decade’
www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/blog-view/sustainable-business-in-asia-five-trends-that-will-impact-decisive-decade
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), in partnership with the Climate
Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) and Ecodesk - The Reporting Exchange ‘Corporate and sustainability reporting in Singapore and Southeast Asia’
www.docs.wbcsd.org/2018/10/Corporate_and_sustainability_reporting_in_Singapore_and_Southeast_Asia.pdf
Merriden Varrall, Asia Society (2020) ‘ASEAN’s Way to Sustainable Development’
www.asiasociety.org/australia/aseans-way-sustainable-development
Africa
David Craig, World Economic Forum Agenda (2019) ‘It's in the numbers – how sustainability will support Africa's long-term growth and development’
www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/why-sustainability-is-critical-for-the-long-term-growth-and-development-of-africa
Africa Sustainability Matters
www.africasustainabilitymatters.com
United Nations (2019) ‘Corporate Sustainability Reporting in Least Developed Countries: Challenges and Opportunities for Action’
www.unohrlls.org/custom-content/uploads/2019/03/Occasional-Paper-6.pdf
United Nations Global Compact - Africa
www.unglobalcompact.org/engage-locally/africa
North America
Ed’s Clean Energy & Sustainability Jobs List
www.edsjobslist.com
The Environmental Career Center
www.environmentalcareer.com
B Work connects purpose driven jobseekers with meaningful work at companies that are using business as a force for good.
www.bwork.com
Sustainable Career Pathways, network of organisations
www.sustainablecareerpathways.com/networks
Sustainablebusiness.com
www.sustainablebusiness.com
Climatebase
www.climate.careers
GreenBiz Group
www.greenbiz.com
Greenbiz Jobs Board
www.jobs.greenbiz.com
Net Impact
www.netimpact.org
Net Impact Careers
www.netimpact.org/discover-your-career
www.netimpact.org/jobs
80,000 Hours aims to solve the most pressing skill bottlenecks in the world’s most pressing problems
www.80000hours.org
The Sustain O'bility One Stop
www.sustainobility.biz
(subscriptions to gain help with career development)
How I got my sustainability job
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSOLbfwYCTo
Career paths in sustainability
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1uQk7UVuvA
Weinreb Group Sustainability and ESG Recruiting
www.weinrebgroup.com
Corporate Knights, one of the world’s largest circulation magazines focused on the intersection of business and sustainability
www.corporateknights.com
Auden Schendler (2010) ‘Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution’
Amory Lovins and Rocky Mountain Institute (2011) ‘Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era’
Rocky Mountain Institute
www.rmi.org
Rocky Mountain Institute Careers
www.rmi.org/about/careers
International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP)
www.sustainabilityprofessionals.org
www.sustainabilityprofessionals.careerwebsite.com
Green America
www.greenamerica.org
South America
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) (2020) ‘Latin America’
www.wbcsd.org/Overview/Global-Network/Regions/Latin-America
IndexAmericas (Inter-American Development Bank)
www.indexamericas.iadb.org
Grantham Institute (2019) ‘How can Latin American countries shape a more sustainable future?’
www.granthaminstitute.com/2019/09/02/how-can-latin-america-countries-shape-a-more-sustainable-future
Oceania
Australian Council of Superannuation Investors limited (ACSI) (2018) ‘Corporate Sustainability Reporting in Australia: 2018’
www.acsi.org.au/research-reports/corporate-sustainability-reporting-in-australia-2018
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) (2018) ‘Sustainability reporting in Australia: jumping into the mainstream’
www.wbcsd.org/Programs/Redefining-Value/External-Disclosure/The-Reporting-Exchange/News/Sustainability-reporting-in-Australia-jumping-into-the-mainstream
Sustainable Business Network
www.sustainable.org.nz
Global
Green Jobs
www.greenjobs.co.uk/browse-jobs/sustainability-jobs
Green Recruitment Company
www.greenrecruitmentcompany.com
Josh’s Water Jobs
www.joshswaterjobs.com/jobs
Earth Hackers – monthly newsletter focusing on three key companies
www.earthhackers.substack.com/archive
Climate Coaching Alliance
www.climatecoachingalliance.org
CSO Magazine
www.csomagazine.com
Ibex Earth – ‘Student’ section includes information on internships, work experience and voluntary opportunities
www.ibexearth.com/about
