WHY ARE THEY NOW IMPORTANT?

Numerous factors are combining to make sustainability and responsibility important commercial factors in any business — the significant rise in consumer expectations; the credit crunch; global warming; increased compliance regulations; and increased ethical competition to name a few.

Not only is the practice of sustainability and responsibility the correct ethical and moral course of business but investors, consumers and governments of all sizes are increasingly realising that being sustainable and responsible are, today, integral components of the value proposition and therefore key elements of business profitability. Those businesses that are not starting to practice sustainability and responsibility could find themselves at a considerable competitive disadvantage.

Consumers are rapidly adjusting their habits in the face of overwhelming evidence that climate change, population growth and increasing scarcity of natural resources, energy and food are the most pressing challenge to human kind and if unaddressed could potentially lead to serious global destabilisation, disruption and conflicts.