Sustainability in 2025 and Beyond, Part I: Intro

Back in the beginning, circa 2008, Sourcing Innovation ran one of the first cross-blog series on Sustainability (with the Wrap-Up post still available) and it’s importance to Procurement, Supply Chains, and business sustainability overall.

While sustainability may have fallen out of favour in the current American political and regulatory environment (and you can see our post from earlier this year on how in the corporate world, sustainability/ESG is NOT a priority), to the point that we had to counter the Chief Sustainability Officer graphics going around earlier this year with a Chief Sustainability Officer: USA Edition article, the reality is that, regardless of the current disdain in some political landscapes, sustainability, at its core is becoming more and more important to corporate survival.

This is because sustainability, at its core, is necessary to the continued existence of the corporation, whether you go with the classic definition of maintaining at a certain rate or level over time or the new definition of avoidance of the (over) depletion of natural resources in an attempt to maintain an ecological balance over time.

Neither of these conflict with the fundamental goal of a corporation, which is to make a profit for their shareholders, as without sustainable functions, they will not be able to maintain stable operations (and thus profits) over time. Without sustainable practices, a corporation’s raw material and energy costs will skyrocket over time, making profit all but impossible.

So sustainability is important, especially since it relates to all aspects of a business, including, but not limited to:

  • Operations, Procurement, and Supply Chain
    • Facilities
    • IT Infrastructure
    • Materials
    • Manufacturing
    • Utilities
    • Distribution
    • Marketing & Sales
  • Talent
  • Risk Management
  • Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Moreover, it requires stakeholder engagement beyond just the business departments, as it requires alignment across:

  • investors
  • the board
  • organizational departments and employees
  • suppliers / contractors
  • customers

In this series, we’re going to break down what the requirements really are (beyond just the regulations your organization is currently subject to), why they are important, and give you some hints on how you can be more sustainable in a way that is approved by, and benefits, the business, regardless if you are located in ESG/Carbon-Scope 3 focussed Europe, regulatory rollback USA, or somewhere else in the world.