What is Sustainability?

Aligning operations to the 3Ps - People, Planet and Profit

Words like 'sustainable' and 'sustainability' are very common these days. Sustainability means different things to different people. The word “sustainable”, means “able to be maintained”. This definition can be applied to various subject matters, including society as a whole, industry, agriculture, or family values. The concept of sustainability can be over-whelming because of the comprehensive nature of the word, but the root meaning is actually a simple concept that is nearly intuitive to most people.

Sustainability could be defined as an ability or capacity of something to be maintained or to sustain itself. It’s about taking what we need to live now, without jeopardising the potential for people in the future to meet their needs.The way we live our lives today, the way our products are manufactured, transported, and disposed of, the energy systems we employ

Sustainable Business is a non-traditional strategy that strives to maximize effectiveness. Sustainable business practices restore environmental quality and build social equity, while increasing long-term profitability. Throughout history, industry has intensified its degradation of the environment through the exploitation of natural resources and the release of hazardous pollution. At the same time, business has spent billions of dollars complying with governmental regulations aimed at decreasing the amount of toxic substances entering the landfills, air, and water.

Starting less than 2 decades ago, a movement began inside business to change the way companies operate. Some changes include the elimination of hazardous chemicals as well as the entire concept of waste, and treating employees and the community favorably. The same business practices that increase social and environmental capital also improve the long-term profitability of companies. These win-win situations for the natural world, the community, and business have given traction to the next industrial revolution

Sustainable business operations means integrating and taking into account the 3Ps (People, Planet, Profit) into a business processes and operations.