Navigating sustainability goals (Part 2)

In our previous blog, I talked about the complexity of goals in the sustainability world. We had a view of why we set high-level goals in the first place, how sometimes sustainability goals and KPIs differ from other company goals in terms of complexity, what means to navigate through this complexity for a company and how sustainability is the right thing to do and the right commit to make.  

The goals have been set; companies need to keep the speed of the ship and the North Star vigilant. Changes and improvements will be on the go; the ship cannot stop; assessments and reassessments will be done better sooner than later; and questions will come. Do we have the information we need? Is it accurate? With so many interventions, are current baselines a real representation of what we are measuring? Are we finding things that we never saw before? 

I believe we are just seeing the tip of the sustainability complexity iceberg. Companies are sorting through all these challenges and adjusting to everything that is happening at a local and global level, and all companies face some, if not all, of these challenges, don’t they? 

1. A few thoughts on this turmoil 

Tackling several sustainable goals together seems logical but yet harder to achieve, and not because companies might need to add more resources and effort to it, but because of a past, sometimes our generation doesn’t seem to weigh in on the sustainability strategy, and new generations simply are not being taught about it. 

For instance, many years ago, companies and the population moved away from using paper because paper manufacturing uses an incredible amount of water. The US benchmark for water use within pulp and paper mills is approximately 17,000 gallons per ton of paper. (For comparison, an average American family uses 300 gallons of water per day at home; 1 ton of paper equals over 50 families’ daily water use.) This is without mentioning where the pulp comes from or the waste that is generated. Pulp and paper mills contribute to air, water, and land pollution; they are considered highly toxic and rank sixth among the most polluting industries in the world. 

We ditched glass for plastic; glass was fragile, easy to break, even dangerous, heavy to transport, and expensive. We found a way to accept plastic instead of more sustainable solutions in our lives. Even when 30–40 years ago, plastic was facing initiatives to be banned and curbed because recycling plastic was costly and difficult, here we are 40 years later looking for ways to fight plastic pollution and still discovering new challenges that plastic lay ahead, like nano plastic particles in water and in humans. 

You can see trends of going back to glass and paper products; despite the issues in the past, paper and glass seem a more feasible environmental option or an easier way to achieve certain sustainability goals, at least more than plastic for now. Another challenge that the plastics industry presents, even with more suitable plastic that could be easily recycled or reused, is to face the fact that more recycling and reuse will mean fewer profits for oil and gas companies, and this is hard to turn around. You get the point. 

I don’t think we are close to moving away from plastic, but perhaps the closest solution could be a mix of options to achieve sustainable goals where a reduction in plastic production supported by reuse laws could become a common goal for producers, manufacturers, and final users. 

2. The Race 

In this race, marked by showing how competitive but conscience-oriented businesses are, driven by the best available standards, with a client-oriented mentality, and paddling in favor of this global effort, no one wants to be left behind. 

Each company knows what the best framework is and which of the 17 sustainable goals they need to adopt. A clear vision is necessary to set sustainability goals to enable the company to grow with a compound effect, not only to create a make-up goal or flavor of the month. Earth-to-moon sustainable goals are nothing but empty words if companies cannot truly contribute and seek to become their vision and very best. A sustainable goal is truly a big milestone; maybe it also applies here to the saying “slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” 

3. Final thoughts 

I do believe that setting high-level goals can and will drive high-level solutions to the company’s most relevant issues if there is transparency and an awareness of reality. 

Companies are all tremendously capable of coming up with new ideas and solutions. It is not wrong to aim high, but make sure to do your reality check and identify road blockages and gaps that could restrain your business from achieving its sustainability goals and deviating from its vision. Accuracy, consistency, and a controlled pace will bring success; sustainability is a company journey, not a one-stop trip. Are your company’s sustainable goals thoroughly devised and heading to success?