Sustainable Operations Require Business Engagement
Do you know the meaning of "sustainable operations?" If you are in business of any kind you must certainly realize that this refers to the ability to "endure." This is something that we have paid scant regard to over the past two to three hundred years and we can see the consequent damage to the environment around us. There is now considerable pressure for us all to become more efficient and to leave less of a mark as we go through life and think about the future.
A business these days must fully adopt the concept of sustainable operations and the driving force to ensure that this happens must come from the top. This is not a concept that can be delegated to a division or a department. Nor can it be referred to as a public relations exercise. There will be significant repercussions for the enterprise that does not understand its moral obligations.
While major organizations around the world, maybe as many as eight out of ten, seem to fully understand and embrace the idea of sustainable operations, we can nevertheless see that the vast majority of companies do not. They are only now analyzing and understanding what they have to do in the future to comply.
As some organizations panic when they realize that they are not maintaining sustainable operations, they rush to try and analyze the position and promote the fact that they are doing so. Without a full understanding of the footprint in relation to their energy use, carbon emissions, water management and waste disposal then any statements they make in due course will be accused of "greenwashing," or mistaking their position.
It takes a full lifecycle analysis of an organization before a true position can be revealed. Every element of the business is responsible in one way or another for its impact on its surroundings and a full interpretation will be necessary before any realistic action may be taken.
There are different levels of carbon emissions to understand and all must be reported and be the subject of restrictive action in future. Senior management must understand that carbon emissions represent the biggest problem. When it comes to energy production and use they must now know all about scope one and scope two emissions, while scope three emissions, referring to supply chain, postproduction and end-of-life disposal, are more difficult to analyze but nevertheless significant.
As a program of sustainable operations is implemented, the organization will find that it will ultimately benefit as it understands the efficiency of each one of its assets. It is to be expected that a finer return on investment will be enjoyed from these assets as they are analyzed and brought up to speed.
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