The sustainability arena has changed significantly over the past decade. Sustainability Matters talks to Dr Matthew Bell, EY Oceania Climate Change and Sustainability Leader, about the changing attitudes towards sustainability strategies and what organisations need to be thinking about.
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rganisations that once viewed sustainability as a ‘nice to have’ have now recognised the importance and value of embedding it into their strategy. Ac-
cording to Bell, the introduction of the ASX Corporate Governance Principles, which specify disclosures on environmental, social and sustainability risks, reflects these changing attitudes. Recommendation 7.4 of the ASX Corporate Governance Principles requires “a listed entity [to] disclose whether it has any material exposure to economic, environmental and social sustainability risks and, if it does, how it manages or intends to manage those risks”. The rules came into play this financial year and although not mandatory, Bell believes they will eventually have the same sort of a ripple effect that was seen when the ASX introduced a similar type of disclosure rule on gender diversity a few years ago. Gender equality still has a fair way to go, but Bell says there is no doubt these disclosure requirements did have an impact, particularly when it came to increasing the number of women on boards and in senior leadership roles in Australian listed companies.
Sustainability strategy — no longer just a ‘nice to have’
“I think in the past sustainability reporting has kind of been the tail that wags the dog,” he said. “We’ve seen organisations putting a lot of effort into a sustainability report and then going back to put things in place to meet these objectives, targets and goals. That has been useful but I’d like to see that change around. I’d like to see strategy thought through and then reporting the outcome of that. And yes, this is a trend that is happening, and more so in the last 12 months than we have ever seen.” Certainly, carbon-intensive organisations have been targeted as having the most sustainability risk and most likely to be impacted by environmental and social risks. But Bell said: “The reality is, now, all companies need to consider their sustainability context.”
8 Sustainability Matters - Oct/Nov 2015
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