Article originally published in newspaper O Globo, October 1, 2018.
It was during the Second World War that, for the first time, the prerogative of trying to hold the pilot of a fighter plane in his seat arose, not only for his own safety, but also for the unforeseen: the speed sometimes ejected him, and the plane was lost. This is where the seat belt came from, today an unquestionable habit. The enormous time gap between the creation of the equipment to hold the pilot in his seat and the moment when our coexistence with the seat belt became habitual gives us an approximate dimension of the difficulties in promoting structural changes in habits and customs or, adapting the example to the business level, in forms of management and governance.
Incorporate environmental aspects, social impacts, scarcity of natural resources or climate risks directly or indirectly related to the production process are ruptures with pre-established business, investment and development models.
Initially, the ecological wave that swept the world led the business sector to adopt a sustainability department to deal with its impacts in this area, generally in a welfare-based, vertical and imposing manner in the compensation offered to communities impacted by the projects. Today, new business models, such as the collaborative economy, for example, have been standing out in the environment of large companies, vanguards in their areas of activity. This systemic vision considers the Sustainable Development Goals (ODS) of the UN as a compass in defining purposes and deciding on investments, through integrated management and new corporate governance.
A company ready for the future is one in which sustainability is an integrated and transversal issue, permeating all areas: finance, legal, management, HR, factory floor, communications and engineering. Thinking about the sustainability of the business from the use of plastic cups to the disposal of waste on the production line – or the reuse of water, as well as the balanced hiring of employees, respecting equality of gender, race and age group – means thinking with a systemic, integrated and cutting-edge vision. It means thinking about how to keep the pilot in the seat, 50 years before this action becomes common practice.
Together with the main executives of its 60 associates, the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) has been thinking frequently about how to face the challenges of sustainability. With water scarcity and climate change affecting investment projections, keeping the pilot in the seat is more than an innovation, survival instinct or safety. Keeping the pilot in the seat is generating good business and ensuring survival.
Reproducing systemic models of cross-cutting sustainability in the value chains of the most diverse sectors, in all segments, and with the greatest possible reach, is not just a daily mission for companies. We believe that politicians have an essential role in guiding the articulation of technological advances and sustainability actions of companies and society, promoting a business environment with adequate regulatory frameworks, providing legal certainty and promoting public policies capable of giving the necessary scale to good business practices.
We live in times of acute change. We need to protect the poorest and most vulnerable from the volatility of the labor market, anticipate the major disruptive changes that will affect entire sectors of the economy, advance an agenda focused on innovation and inclusive and sustainable development and, along with all this, promote the use of the concept of sustainability, just as it was done with seat belts. As a daily habit, indisputable at an individual, institutional, corporate and society-wide level. Without this, we will be ejected from planet Earth.
Marina Grossi is president of Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development
