Driving The Sustainability Agenda Through The Coming Decade

The response to danger or risk is binary in nature. When human beings are faced with a crisis or danger they can either choose to ‘fight’ or flight’. It is an immediate and primeval response. However, there is a third response as well, one that can have an enduring impact on humankind. It is an opportunity to ruminate on status quo and course correct. The current contagion that has upended the world affords us an opportunity to take stock of what we as people, businesses and countries prioritise and where we are channelising our resources. 

Since time immemorial, land has been a prized possession. Those who have it are better off than those who don’t. Unfortunately, the quest for land cannot be satiated. This led to wars, as countries simultaneously fought to conquer territories and protect their own boundaries. In the past, countries spent a sizeable chunk of their budget allocations on maintaining their army and adding more weaponry to their stable. Over the years, warfare changed and the defencebudgets of countries started expanding exponentially. Investment in arms, sophisticated weaponry and research and development of nuclear capabilities became the key priority for most nations. Capitalism became the buzzword and the pursuit of profit became the only agenda for corporations across the world. Not much heed was given to the impact of this single point agenda on the environment or our health & well-being. The mantra in the latter part of the last century was that greed is good. However, in the early part of this century, there was a small but perceptible shift to sustainable development. 

Corporate Social Responsibility to the rescue

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is the thread that ties together economic development, environment protection and social community elevation. While the idea of environmentally sustainable economic growth is not new, it is only in recent years that it has been embraced by corporations across the globe. In 2014, the 2 per cent Bill was implemented in India which mandated all corporates with an average net profit of at least Rs 50 million to spend 2 per cent of their average net profits made in the preceding three years on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. Since then, many companies have set up trusts and committed funds to various causes that contribute to sustainable development.

Governments should lead the way

The current crisis is as much about the virus as it is about the inability of healthcare infrastructure to ably deal with the crisis. Governments need to be wholly invested in the sustainability agenda. The national strategies for sustainable development should provide an overarching framework for all policies within the country and should not be treated as an afterthought. The first step towards this is to create higher budgetary allocations for sustainable development and instituting accountability amongst all stakeholders in the ecosystem.

In the last five years itself, the world has witnessed ~2000 natural disasters. Add to that the current pandemic and it is hard to deny that we are at a tipping point. It is time for all stakeholders, led by the government, to get serious about the sustainability agenda and implement it to the best of their capacity.