By Jana Lake, 3R President
“If you are lucky enough to never experience any sort of adversity, we won’t know how resilient you are. It’s only when you’re faced with obstacles, stress, and other environmental threats that resilience, or the lack of it, emerges: Do you succumb, or do you surmount?”— Maria Konnikova
When I started 3R in 2015, the mission was to help organizations realize the business value of sustainability, and that mission is more important today than ever. I could see the challenges ahead that terms and practices dubbed “ESG” or “CSR” would be embraced when conditions were good but risked being considered ‘expendable’ during tough times IF sustainability wasn’t directly tied to an organization’s ability to achieve its business goals, financial and otherwise.
Over these past ten years, terms like CSR and ESG have been used to try to simplify the concept of sustainability, but I prefer the definition in the dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster, sustainability means something is capable of being sustained or can continue for a long time. It can also refer to a method of using resources without depleting them. At 3R, we believe a truly sustainable company is not just “sustaining” but is positioned to withstand unforeseen disruptions and thrive for generations.
Sustainability needs to be part of a company’s culture and how team members make decisions each day. In fact, sustainability is exactly what an organization NEEDS during tough times.
An organization that is sustainable proactively:
- identifies and manages risks;
- develops a diverse set of individuals into an engaged team;
- strengthens the communities it operates in;
- manages resources efficiently to get the greatest return on investment;
- collaborates with customers to capitalize on market opportunities;
- partners with suppliers who operate responsibly;
- plans for disruptions to weather any storm (literally and figuratively); and
- realizes the business value of sustainability.
In light of recent events and this point in time that has been coined as one of “ESG backlash,” we wanted to take this opportunity to reaffirm our focus on business value and share an updated definition of our own 3 “Rs.” The R’s detailed below reflect how we define sustainability internally as well as in our partnerships with clients.
Responsibility: understanding business impacts and risks and taking appropriate action to mitigate negative impacts, while capitalizing on opportunities
Resilience: building capabilities to withstand changing socioeconomic conditions over time
Results: efficiently using resources and high-quality data to improve business performance and demonstrate business value creation
At 3R, we work with our clients to define what Responsibility, Resilience, and Results mean in their organization and to integrate them into the way they make decisions. Sustainable business is simply good business. Here are recent stats to support this statement:
According to a survey by Workiva of 1,600 global corporate leaders and 200 institutional investors:
- 97% of executives say a strong sustainability reporting program will give businesses a competitive advantage within two years.
- 85% of executives that were intending to disclose greenhouse gas emissions will move forward with disclosures irrespective of any political developments within their country.
- 92% of investors rank data accuracy as foundational for evaluating organizations, yet nearly a quarter of executives do not fully trust their financial data.
- 77% of executives believe that their company’s current approach to AI adoption could introduce risk.
Adversity is an opportunity. Without adversity, you’ll never know how good you can be. Adversity makes us stronger, more resilient. It means we must dig deep to really know what we stand for…and WHY.
—Jana
