Sustainable Development and Your Business Plan

How To Set Up A Sustainable Development Plan

	A 2002 DePaul University study showed that overall financial performance of the 2001 Business Ethics Best Citizen companies was significantly better than that of the remaining companies in the S&P 500 Index, based on the 2001 Business Week ranking of total financial performance.

1. Establish a customized definition of sustainable development that can serve as a guidepost for business conduct. The definition must suit your operations and key stakeholders—keep it practical, but specific.

2. Once the definition has been agreed upon, then the business establishes its company-specific principles for sustainable development. Many SMEs proceed by establishing a collection of six to ten principles of sustainable development, which reference the three interdependent components of environment, economy and society. These principles serve as fundamental codes of conduct to guide an organization. Setting up meaningful principles cannot be overemphasized. Without them, a company will flounder in its pursuit for sustainable development.

3. A sustainable development definition, combined with six to ten principles, constitutes a company's Sustainable Development Strategy/Policy. This policy is usually a one-page, stand-alone document, which presents a concise overview of the company's commitment to the environment, economy and society. Within a company, the policy will generally be placed in strategic locations frequented by high numbers of employees; externally, it will be distributed to a wide range of stakeholder groups.

4. Develop Sustainable Development Measures of Performance to assess the Sustainable Development Strategy. Setting sustainable development measures is a challenging step. If a measure is not practical, meaningful and cost-effective, it is of no value to an organization.

Source: Applying Sustainable Development To Business: Realizing the Benefits, Industry Canada

Related Internet Resources

Tools

SD Planner (Global Environmental Management Initiative)[English only]
Climate Change Corporate Strategy Tool (Global Environmental Management Initiative)[English only]