Sustainability is becoming a vital aspect of modern business, with almost two-thirds of executives believing that it is necessary to have a successful strategy for sustainability to be successful today. A further 22% believe that, if it is not yet essential today, it will soon become so in the near future.
Speaking from her position as CEO of World Wide Generation, Manjula Lee discussed business sustainability and the need for real-time monitoring and vetting of investment decisions at a recent data conference. Lee discussed the post-Brexit economic future of Britain, tackling biases, and how to influence business decision-making, emphasising the importance of sustainability both in terms of the environment and business longevity.
Marcel Kooter has a passion for sustainability solutions, exploring ways of meeting global energy requirements while making better use of limited natural resources. In his capacity as consultant at Telos Partners, he is looking at supporting companies to achieve long term sustainable success through delivering strategic and organisational change. These two different definitions of sustainability are inseparable.
In the infographic attachment you can learn more about some of the different types of renewable, sustainable energy sources in the world today.
Sustainable Development Goals
The United Nations has established a list of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that have been set for completion by 2030. These SDGs can provide companies with key strategy guidelines for doing business successfully while also helping some of the poorest peoples in the world. The problem at present, says Lee, is that companies are still working in silos, each pursuing their own goals and creating a culture of distrust among impact investors. You can find out more about what impact investing entails in the embedded PDF.
Lee commented on the unsustainable nature of investment decisions being made today, identifying a need to make use of new technologies for data analysis to work hand in hand with personal vetting processes in pursuit of a more sustainable future.
World Wide Generation
World Wide Generation is building an investment platform designed specifically to meet the needs of sustainable investment, utilising a digital platform to provide data that can be trusted to inform new systems of belief to lead to faster, better and more sustainable investment decisions.
The tech ecosystem platform is interoperable and designed for use by multiple partners and frameworks, integrating other sustainable technologies to solve the problem of measuring the impact of each investment decision.
Return on Investment (ROI) is meaningless, says Lee, if the future contains no planet for us to live on. Therefore, changing the attitudes, biases and thought patterns of influential CEOs today is vital if we are to create a sustainable future.
Post-Brexit Sustainable Strategies
The uncertainties surrounding Brexit have been worrying many for several years so far. Lee states that the post-Brexit future of Britain needs to revolve around sustainable development and fintech if the nation is to survive the fallout. Britain should in theory have no problem with meeting the sustainability challenges of the future even after Brexit, stated Lee.
Measuring Impact
CEOs and other business leaders are under constant pressure from shareholders and other stakeholders to generate short-term profitability. However, a longer-term outlook is required if we are to envision a future where the world still exists for us to make profit. One of the problems at present, says Lee, is that everyone measures impact in a different way, making it impossible to quantify.
With the World Wide Generation platform, investment decisions can be monitored in real time and the appropriate due diligence completed for each project. The short video attachment explains the definition of due diligence in terms of finance and investment strategy.
