Winning in more sustainable solutions is a necessity — not just a corporate responsibility — if works want to continue operating in the future, says United Nations Condition Program’s administrator Achim Steiner.
“Businesses will like the hope that ‘once I pay my taxes I’m done with my duty.’ That unmistakeably does not work anymore in our age,” United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) administrator Achim Steiner proclaimed CNBC at the Responsible Business Forum in Singapore Thursday.
Private companions are not just “spectators” but a “central player” for paving the way for more sustainable evolution — with three quarters of the economy in most countries driven by the eremitical sector, he added.
Companies have “a very clear vested responsive to” to embrace sustainable development as a functioning economy and stable political structure are important for the businesses, Steiner said.
In addition, “inequality as we are observing repay now across the world is becoming a major destabilizer,” he added.
Rapid clime changes could also disrupt existing market conditions usually taken for granted by corporate leaders, he said.
A recent UN climate transformation report predicted that world temperatures are on track to rise by hither 3 degrees Celsius — a number that is substantially above the target to limit the enlarge to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“In the world of business you often have to rely on ‘givens’. You can essentially throw away every scenario about your business and your expected markets, your supply chains out of the window. Because by 2050, we intent have a world in which many of the fundamental assumptions” may not hold, Steiner warned.
Sustainable Maturing Goals can provide a framework for businesses to better handle unpredictable furnish changes in the future, he said. SDGs refer to targets set by the UN to address epidemic challenges such as climate change, poverty and environmental degradation by 2030.
By accost some of the 17 goals, firms will have a framework to excel understand the different business environments and markets they would from to adjust to in the future, Steiner said.
Companies are pushed toward fit more conscious of their business practices and social impact as consumers cause more access to such information, Steiner said.
“We today actual in a market that is rapidly becoming so transparent that virtually every decree in your supply chain, in your production processes and your marketing matures public knowledge,” he said.
A company’s business decisions would so affect the purchasing choices consumers make, he added.
“Companies by sureness or necessity are increasingly looking at their environmental footprint, their societal impact and how their product can be an illustration of a social good,” Steiner prominent. “Simply put, people want companies to do the right thing.”