BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY POST COVID

Posted by: Rajat Kumar, Head of Finance

COVID has shown us transformational changes can be done overnight. The manufacturing sector has suffered to a great extent due to global pandemic. This pandemic is forcing the manufacturing industries to look forward to a long term and sustainable business plan, which ensures sustainability in three different aspects i.e. Social, Economic, and
Environment. This demands a never before need of higher value to the customer in lesser resources.

The time to act on this was yesterday, but all hope is not lost yet. Creating a robust sustainability strategy and building enterprise resilience has thus become the top priority for company leaders, as they strive to help businesses adapt to a post-COVID world. In a way, this crisis has enabled business leaders and corporate managers to view their
sustainability agendas in a new light, as they tackle pre-existing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks.

Most enterprises, large and small, have embraced remote working, virtual meetings and teleconferencing. This has massively reduced travelling time and efforts and has showcased better air quality in urban cities. Now’s the time to bring shorter, higher-energy-efficiency manufacturing and processing and technology-led supply chains into the picture, while keeping stakeholder interests at hand. Moreover, consumers have become more aware of the way their favourite brands are responding to this challenge.

Even the smallest steps taken towards effective climate action and sustainability management will help enhance brand and reputation and create positive sentiment among the larger consumer community.

We can start by integrating environmental resiliency into the core of our businesses. The first step for business leaders needs to be a shift in thought process — we need to be able to view the learning that this crisis has to offer, and all the opportunities it presents. One way to do this is to conduct a post-COVID materiality assessment with key stakeholders.

Then, we move on to aligning business strategies with sustainability goals that emerge from your materiality matrix, since there is an increasing pressure to act on this not just from consumers, but investors as well.

The most important lesson, though, is that anticipating a risk is not enough. Global enterprises now need to empower and equip employees to be agile enough to embrace the new normal that COVID brings. For this, leaders need to do both — plan now and act now. Plan what can have the greatest positive impact in line with both, climate action and ESG risks — they are intrinsically linked with creating true value for shareholders. Whether it is doubling down on energy efficiency measures or shifting from fossil fuels to renewables, viewing company-wide initiatives with a sustainability lens drives tremendous top and bottom-line impact. And while we focus on effective climate action, it is also critical to focus on the S and G parts of ESG. Leaders, who treat employees fairly, enhance safety protocols and ensure the health and well-being of their teams will most definitely build greater enterprise resilience than those who don’t. Companies that demonstrate diversity in the workforce and treat women equally, with board representation will outperform.

This is also the best time to take stock of supplier and vendor relationships and create shared value for them, and the first step to doing this correctly is setting concrete targets for long term supply chain sustainability. This ties into the overall business sustainability agenda and ensures that teams can review risk assessments and act accordingly.

Now is also the time to really look at sustainable development through the consumer lens and imbibe circularity into existing business processes. Assessments such as these have the power to not only gauge consumer sentiment but unlock investment power as well. Only then will be able to create change and stick by it.

The COVID-19 crisis has shown us that it is possible to make transformational changes overnight. We have to apply these lessons to address climate change, to maintain the momentum of these transformations and stay focused on the bigger challenges posed by climate change.