Addressing systemic issues for a sustainable future

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The future holds many interconnected challenges for a sustainable future, the environment, society and our economy need to be addressed in its core and its deeply rooted problems.

 

The last few years have been a rollercoaster of global societal, environmental and economic challenges. From the Paris Agreement to the COP26 reinforcing the idea of the need for urgent climate action, and the subsequent realization of the many interdependent social and economic factors that also need to be addressed.

Not to forget the added challenges of the sanitary crisis that we’re still slowly leaving behind and the technological and market disruption that have come to characterize our era. In this context it sometimes seems difficult to look on the bright side of things, but there are still reasons to believe that the necessary changes will come, either from governmental cooperation or business innovation.

”Many of the obstacles slowing sustainability down are deeply rooted in our systems, both social and economic, and for better or for worse such obstacles have been overly exposed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Where do we start?

Solutions take time, as well as many other resources, but there is however an important element for any and every challenge we face as a global society, and that is addressing everything from its roots. 

Many of the obstacles slowing sustainability down are deeply rooted in our systems, both social and economic, and for better or for worse such obstacles have been overly exposed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

And as we mentioned before, most, if not all problems, are interconnected, making the environment, the economy and society interdependent of each other. In this regard, one of the main ways to offer real solutions for today’s challenges is for the business world to address several internal and systemic issues of its own.

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Focusing on purpose, compromise and a commitment to the environment can help create better resistance to systemic crises. 

A more sustainable business model

There are many challenges that the corporate world can address at the core of their business in order to ease the way towards sustainability, here we have listed some of the most relevant ones, as learned from the sanitary crisis:

  • Leadership and kindness: The pandemic exposed much of the fragility of our working lives, realizing that the balance between personal and professional is yet to be improved. So when we talk about leadership and kindness we are referring to the acknowledgment of our common humanity and to the idea that treating people with compassion and being mindful of their needs while creating the necessary communication channels is the kind of leadership that we should strive for today.

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  • Responsible capitalism: In the last few years the number of movements, ideologies and activists challenging capitalism as we know it has grown exponentially. Once again, the sanitary crisis was a turning point for anti-capitalist ideas to surge as the current system seemed to dismantle quite easily, leaving many to rethink how we understand money, work and life. So what do we mean by responsible capitalism? In a nutshell, it refers to creating value across all aspects of a business, including all stakeholders, even in the adversity of economic pressures. Focusing on purpose, compromise and a commitment to the environment can help create better resistance to systemic crises.
”…following COP26’s goals through business activities is not to be seen as an obstacle to global growth, but rather an opportunity to jump onto the next global wave of growth and wellbeing.”
  • Climate action: The recent COP26 reaffirmed what we have long been avoiding, and that is the urgency of drastically cutting down CO2 emissions. The role of the business world in this matter is crucial, but some do not seem to find the necessary incentives to embark themselves in such environmental endeavors. To some extent this is understandable, especially given the nature of the climate crisis and the net zero challenge. But what we mostly need to understand is that following COP26’s goals through business activities is not to be seen as an obstacle to global growth, but rather an opportunity to jump onto the next global wave of growth and wellbeing.

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Transparency is a good place to start

 

We believe and work for transparency to be one of the key values driving the fight for climate action, social wellbeing and good governance as it is the only way to understand what we are doing wrong, what we are doing right and what it is that we are not doing yet.

Because being transparent is not only an externality to a company, or a given organization, to help build trust and reputation; it is in fact also a great learning and improvement mechanism. You cannot manage what you don’t understand. And so we advocate for transparency, integrity and precision as imperatives to the fight against climate change.

In DoGood we are convinced of the need to understand and manage efforts to achieve a sustainable transition inside an organization for the correct and efficient functioning of the business and the community it operates in. We alone cannot achieve the substantial changes necessary, but we work on the basis of collaboration, transparency and accuracy in order to bring light to sustainable actions.

In this regard, it is essential to our work to promote good corporate governance, meaning that the processes of disclosure and transparency are followed so as to provide regulators and shareholders as well as the general public with precise and accurate information about the financial, operational and other aspects of the company, including a more accurate definition of the ESG performance.

We have developed a corporate government tool that helps establish ESG impact objectives for employees in regards to the sustainability strategy of the company. Through our technology we are able to activate and track employees’ impact, creating engagement that translates into improved ESG metrics, reputational value and an overall positive impact for the environment and society.

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If you want to know more about how we work to create a positive social and environmental impact, click here.