Why Sustainable?

“It is a common defect in men not to consider in good weather the possibility of a tempest.”

Keeping in mind this shortcoming of man, very well put by Niccolo Machiavelli, the need for sustainability arises due to the following reasons.

Environmental:

Dramatic climate changes over the past decades and spine-tingling predictions from ecologists, geologists, and climate experts are no less than a warning. These are a shout out to all, to work on sustaining an environment which supports the human specie. This also means keeping as much biodiversity as possible. Our effect on the environment is neither ignorable nor excusable, and now we must take steps to correct our ways. Emissions from our industries and all other activities together are having a big impact on the earth’s atmosphere and on its resources that we have for ages taken for granted. If we want to survive as a specie, drastic measures need to be taken in our emission practices and natural resource exploitation to stop this threat of global warming and extreme climate change, which if not in our lives, will drastically affect the future generations.

Economic:

Based on the shareholder theory, exclusive focus on increasing shareholder value, irresponsible business practices, and resulting financial crisis over the years, have led us to realize the need of economic sustainability. Economic sustainability would incorporate not only sustainable management accounting solutions with focus on sustainable vision development, internal decision making, and authority sharing, based on stakeholder involvement, but also transparent and perhaps new methods of reporting supported by sustainable financial accounting, measuring both quantitative and qualitative data.

Social:

Providing solutions to problems addressing the rising issues of human rights, labor rights and corporate governance is the key goal for social sustainability. Including the above issues, corporations need to consider the social impact of their being, and how they may help the communities in which their products or services are employed as improving those communities ultimately helps them with achieving their own goal more effectively.