Taking sustainability deep with a social perspective
On the surface, sustainability is a simple concept of ensuring that consumptions remain below a carrying capacity, or replenishment rate, so that future generations can benefit from natural resources infinitely.
In practice, however it is immensely complex to apply the concept of sustainability in an equitable way to any society, from global to local levels. The main reason for this is that consumption patterns are very widely skewed in our social structures, and hence while on the whole there is a single representation of how sustainable or unsustainable we are, in real terms there are some whose lifestyles are completely unsustainable, and these are offset by a majority of the less privileged who consume much lesser. To top it, those who consume lesser, often due to poverty, bear the brunt of the ill impacts of the unsustainable consumption patterns of a few. The result is a society riddled with disparities in incomes, and in the impacts of shocks and stresses, be it naturally triggered disasters such as cyclones, or climate change and its ill impacts including unpredictable floods and droughts, or secondary impacts of a pandemic of the sort we are currently witnessing in the form of Covid19.
In a broad sense, these disparities that are the biggest challenge in making sustainability count can be boiled down to poverty. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number one therefore is `no poverty’. In the same spirit, other key goals talk about zero hunger, gender equality, reduced inequalities and so on. In order to meet all the seventeen SDGs by the agreed deadline of 2030, some of these priority goals that are more socially oriented will be the prime drivers.
The path to sustainability that thus emerges has three clear elements for every individual, organisation or society, each of which needs a defined pathway and concerted efforts:
First, there is a need to look internally on lifestyles, operational systems and organisational cultures to identify overly consumptive patterns and to correct these through resource optimisation and monitoring. For companies this will include employees, workers in the value chain, and customers behaving within the company’s ecosystem.
Second, there is a need to look externally and identify and manage impacts, both positive and negative, on people and nature around us. This will include the wider net of consumers, and also local communities that get impacted by the operations of a a company or organisation directly or indirectly.
Third, there is a need to build resilience in our systems in terms of being able to anticipate, absorb and adapt to shocks that are often unpredictable and sometimes unprecedented. Covid19 is a case in point, where though forecasts of such a pandemic existed in expert groups, those who were in the line of impact and those who were supposed to act to avoid the disaster didn’t take the required preemptive action, as a result of which systems were not able to absorb the impact and got badly affected the world over. It is now to be seen whether we learn from it and adapt our mindsets and systems for a safer future.
Our sustainability plans and reports therefore need to cover internal and external dimensions, need to look at the impact of actions and operations on people and the environment, and need to ensure infinite existence. This will take both ingenuity to plan transformations in value chains towards greater efficiency, and sensitivity to realise that economic growth needs to be calibrated based on the human and environmental price that future generations will have to pay for it. Empowerment of partner organisations and support groups in the community, a humanitarian flavor to social responsibility systems, and building bridges between governments, industry and people will be key to this.
Sustainability in its true sense is a concern that goes way beyond compliance, deep into the realm of ethical existence and adherence to human rights, whether in lifestyles or business.
