topic 4 Flashcards
(17 cards)
Why is HR important?
- HR is key to embedding sustainability across departments.
- Aligns daily operations with company sustainability goals.
- Helps recruit and retain talent, boost productivity, and enhance reputation.
- Employees engaged with sustainability:
- 20% higher performance
- 87% less likely to leave
What is the role of a CSO?
- Leads sustainability strategy
- Works with departments (especially HR) to embed sustainability
- Not always from HR, but closely collaborates with HR teams
What are the key concepts for sustainable HR?
- Culture of sustainability→ Consistent messaging across all levels.
- Hiring & retaining the right people→ through employee engagement
- Incentives & rewards→ maintain employee motivation and ensure the success of sustainability programs.
- Training & tools→ maintain employee motivation and ensure the success of sustainability programs.
- Support for change programs→ Drives effective transformation.
What are the challenges for sustainable HR?
- Stakeholder resistance
- Lack of resources/expertise
- Difficulty measuring impact
- DEI challenges in less diverse industries
- Poor collaboration between HR & management
- Community/training seen as “cost” rather than investment
- HR staff need sustainability skills and knowledge
What are the challenges for DEI?
- Lack of diverse talent at leadership levels
- Unconscious bias & discrimination
- DEI not prioritised due to fast-paced work environments
How can a company implement DEI?
- Set goals
- Hold leadership accountable
- Foster inclusive culture
- Provide training for diversity and inclusion
- Regularly measure & report progress
What are trends and strategies in sustainable HR?
- 💰 Linking Pay to Sustainability
Example: Mastercard
All employee bonuses linked to ESG goals (e.g. carbon reduction, gender pay parity)
- 🌈 Building Diverse Teams
Example: Adobe
Bias training, recruiting events, employee resource groups
- 🧠 Developing Skills for Sustainability
Example: L’Oréal
Training in soft & hard skills, global awareness, communication, leadership
- 🌟 Creating Great Workplaces
Example: Google
Free meals, wellness programs, inclusive culture = high employee retention
(Check Google’s rankings in Singapore)
- 🏢 Creating Sustainable Work Environments
Example: Ngee Ann Polytechnic
Use of green buildings, renewable energy, reduced waste/water usage
What is sustainable operations? (what does it cover)
- Focuses on supply chains and product lifecycles — how products are designed, produced, used, and disposed of.
- most significant direct impact on natural and social resources.
- Drives innovation by challenging traditional processes to create better, more sustainable outcomes.
Why are sustainable operations important?
- Supports the Triple Bottom Line:🟢 Economic – reduces costs & increases efficiency🟠 Social – ethical practices build trust🔵 Environmental – reduces waste, pollution, and resource use
- Helps with:
- Compliance with regulations
- Risk reduction (e.g. bad PR from unethical suppliers)
- Customer loyalty & market share growth
What are key concepts for sustainable operations?
- Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) – Assess impact from design to disposal
- Eco-Design – Plan for sustainability from the beginning
- Efficient Processes – “Do more with less”
- Sustainable Technologies – e.g. pollution prevention
- Supplier Relationships – Ensure ethical sourcing (no child labour, etc.)
- Green Transportation – Reduce impact of logistics
- Waste Minimisation – Focus on reuse, recycling, composting
What are the challenges for sustainable operations?
- Lack of accurate data from suppliers
- Poor communication with suppliers
- No financial support for suppliers to go green
- Conflicting standards & audits
- Long timelines for measurable impact
- Full supply chain changes are hard → start with incremental improvements
Trends and strategies in sustainable operations
📈 Trends & Strategies in Sustainable Operations
🧠 Biomimicry
- Learning from nature’s designs
- Example: Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train design inspired by the Kingfisher beak → more energy-efficient, less noise
🔋 Products That Do More
- Go beyond “less harm” to “more good”
-
Examples:
- Homes with solar panels feeding power to the grid
- Pavegen: flooring tiles that generate electricity from footsteps
🔎 Supply Chain Transparency
- Demand for traceability and eco-labels
-
Example:
- Icebreaker (NZ brand) tags products with codes for customers to trace sourcing
- Japan uses RFID tags on food for traceability and waste reduction
⚡ Instant Feedback for Users
- Real-time info on resource use and impact (e.g. energy meters)
- Helps consumers make informed, sustainable choices
🌿 Exploring New Materials
- Innovative use of eco-friendly raw materials
-
Examples:
- Patagonia: fleece from recycled bottles
- Dell: mushroom-based packaging
👥 Co-Creation with Communities
- Use of crowdsourcing to co-develop sustainable solutions
- Example: Random Hacks of Kindness – open-source solutions to global problems
- Consumers help design products like eco-friendly vehicles for their own regions
What is sustainable accounting?
- Integrates environmental and social factors into financial reporting and decision-making.
- Helps companies understand and communicate their sustainability efforts.
- Supports internal decisions and external reporting to stakeholders.
Why is sustainable accounting important?
- Stakeholders demand better sustainability information.
- Helps companies:
- Meet mandatory/voluntary reporting standards
- Make better decisions with measurable targets
- Identify new business opportunities
- Prepare for climate-related disclosures (e.g. emissions, water use)
- Attract socially responsible investors
What are the key concepts for sustainable accounting?
- Accountants help with:
- Internal info gathering
- External sustainability reporting
- Assurance of reported results
- Core ideas:
- Full cost accounting (include environmental/social costs)
- Identify relevant sustainability issues
- Measure progress toward sustainability goals
- Social impact measurement
- Combine financial + sustainability data in integrated reports
- Ensure accuracy of sustainability claims
What are the challenges for sustainable accounting?
- Short-term thinking dominates traditional accounting
- Hard to quantify environmental/social impacts
- Insufficient or inconsistent data
- Traditional systems often don’t capture full sustainability costs
- Low awareness or training among accountants
What are the trends and strategies for sustainable accounting?
📘 Integrated Reporting
- Combines economic, social, and environmental data in one report
- Gives stakeholders a holistic view of performance
- Encourages “integrated thinking” – valuing environmental/social “externalities”
- Example: Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) initiative
📢 Increased Disclosure
- More transparency = better accountability
- Accountants help measure and share useful, comparable data
- Example: Carbon Disclosure Project – tracks and shares environmental data from major global companies for investors
🕵️ Shadow Reporting
- NGOs publish alternative reports to highlight ignored issues
- Brings unreported environmental/social impacts to light
- Example: Friends of the Earth published “Behind the Shine: The Other Shell” as a counter-report to Shell’s official version
