In recent years, sustainability has emerged as a fundamental consideration for a growing number of businesses from a wide range of global industries and sectors. It may not necessarily be a brand-new or unfamiliar issue of concern in 2022 but with the potentially disastrous implications of climate change well and truly recognised by wider society, it is no longer an option but a necessity for businesses to take a stand with compliance in mind. If you are interested in familiarising yourself with the importance of compliance in sustainability initiatives, continue reading.
It can facilitate long-term business planning
If you are looking to guarantee that any sustainability initiatives your business embarks on are a long-term success, compliance can facilitate long-term business planning to ensure you meet your company’s goals. It may, for example, save you a great deal of time and money to determine your business’ current values and analyse how the long-term vision you have for your business relates to your approach to compliance and sustainability regulations going forward. This can allow you to compare your current purpose regarding sustainability to any future initiatives you have planned with compliance enabling you to adjust your existing strategy if and when necessary.
It can help you assign responsibility
If you have a number of sustainability initiatives lined up for your business in the near future, you must decide who will be responsible not only for making them happen but ensuring they succeed in the long run. It can allow you to choose a path that is suited to your company’s strengths and achieve business-wide compliance in the process. It may also benefit you to ensure both formal and informal responsibilities are documented for future reference and to compare against any monthly or yearly progress so you can keep a close eye on your success rate and make any changes, if necessary, with constant tracking and monitoring the key to ensuring you are remaining compliant on a long-term basis.
It can allow you to assess your capabilities
If you know what steps you must take to implement sustainability initiatives, assessing your capabilities beforehand is good compliance practice. It can let you know whether you are, in fact, well-equipped when it comes to the people and systems required to succeed or whether further progress is needed before you can proceed. If you require individuals that are well-versed in sustainable risk management, for example, you must decide whether to outsource or focus on training existing members of your team with available money, time, and resources just some of the factors must be taken into consideration before coming to an informed conclusion.
It can help you set business-wide standards
If you have done your research, you must then decide how you will transform long-term goals and metrics into a solid plan that will appease compliance and sustainability regulators. It can be easy to set KPIs but unless they can be transformed into practical applications, they may be useless in the eyes of regulators. This can be done by selecting the sustainability factors that are of the highest importance to your business, such as climate change, flooding, or fossil fuels, and relying on your vision to find a solution to any questions that need to be answered.
If you have decided to take a stand and implement a number of sustainability initiatives, you must understand the importance of compliance. It can, for example, facilitate long-term business planning, help you assign responsibility, allow you to assess your capabilities, and, last but not least, help you set business-wide standards by looking at the entire process from the perspective of compliance and sustainability regulators.
