Member Control Panel
The importance of skills for the sustainability of business
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By Judith Holcroft, Cogent Differences in interpretation of sustainable development can arise over differing viewpoints around how each of the three pillars of sustainability – environment, society, and economy – is balanced. The arguments tend to stem from differing views on what is acceptable within business and wider society. However, for most businesses, operating in a tough economic environment, the need to ensure a healthy bottom line must be the priority – so the balance must make sense commercially; it goes without saying that minimum compliance with regulatory expectations provides the basic license to operate. So, business sustainability brings with it the additional challenge of increasing profitability and productivity. That’s not to say there aren’t an array of ethical reasons for reducing the negative impacts of doing business – this is a given. However, the good news is that it’s now commonly accepted that pursuing sustainability also makes good business sense.
Successful businesses have recognised that by implementing sustainable practices, they can:
Plastic fantastic The polymer industry has been getting to grips with the sustainability agenda for many years. Innovation abounds – from plastic insulation; lighter weight cars and airplane parts (and thus better fuel utilisation); plastic solar panels and wind turbine blades as well as innovative food packaging . . . new product development grows more impressive year on year. The BPF is clear about the contribution of plastics to sustainability: plastics make an immense contribution to environmental sustainability through their energy saving potential and intrinsic recyclability and energy recovery options. The UK’s recycled plastics market is buoyant despite tough conditions. A recent WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) report says that demand for food-grade recovered polymers has increased rapidly in the UK, and in some cases, demand is now outstripping supply. Plastics Europe, the trade association, notes that entire regions in Europe are using renewable energy to meet their energy requirements with innovative solutions made from state of the art plastics. Embedding sustainability While the many high profile examples of the industry’s sustainability profile, provide an excellent narrative to reflect the industry’s commitment, this approach needs to spread its reach to every part of the plastics industry. Not least because of the expectations and demands placed on organisations by their customers and suppliers as well as the commercial advantage it brings. Increasingly, in order to respond to this changing world, organisations need to enhance the skills of employees to increase capability in this critical area. There are five key components of a skills strategy for sustainable business: 1. Strategy and reporting: to embed sustainable development into the organisation, it’s helpful to think about and document some organisation-wide sustainability principles and measures. This could include a commitment to more efficient resource use including energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions, water consumption, waste, unnecessary travel and so on. From this strategy it will be possible to set out some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Even if the company is not ready to report externally, it can start setting targets and sharing the results internally. There are many sources of advice around this, for example, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) whose mission is to support a strong and sustainable green economy. 2. Changing the culture: organisations that have the most success in embedding sustainability tend to communicate the importance of sustainability both explicitly and through the management ethos. Then reinforce this at every opportunity. Principles and progress can be promoted through round table discussions, employee magazines and team briefings. If it’s a Board level issue, it will get taken more seriously – so leadership is critical to making it happen. Once internal communication is underway, the organisation can go public with its commitment, through the website, marketing and so on. 3. Developing practical skills: it goes without saying that an organisation’s most important resource is its employees, whose skills are critical in delivering sustainability. Cogent, the skills council for the polymers industry, in response to the drive towards a low carbon and resource-efficient economy, has developed a suite of small qualifications covering topics such as energy efficiency and waste efficiency. These qualifications are the first nationally accredited qualifications of their type, and are intended to support training for people with responsibility for identifying and implementing efficiency measures for:
Closely linked to this, is the need to introduce business improvement techniques. The National Skills Academy’s Productivity and Competitiveness (PAC) Analysis programme is the first of its kind in the Process Industries. It provides a standardised approach for assessing an organisations’ improvement needs, as well as access to high quality Business Improvement Technique (BIT) training for manufacturing employers in England. Crucially, reporting and measurement are built in to the process. JUDITH HOLCROFT Useful links: http://process.nsacademy.co.uk/ |
