This guide outlines the role and actions leadership can take to effect change towards a sustainable future.
Sustainability and building a sustainable future have been two of the hottest topics in the world over the past few years. We have started to see the serious, almost irreversible harm we have done to the world, and sustainability has emerged as the only real solution. However, change starts at the top, which is why leadership is essential when making drastic and permanent changes.
Leadership for a sustainable future
Here is how good leadership can be the driving force behind attaining a sustainable future.
What is Sustainability Leadership?
In simple terms, sustainable leadership is taking the steps needed to build a sustainable future. This can include using sustainable packaging, using green energy, funding sustainability projects, or anything in between.
While we all have our roles to play, such as recycling and living sustainably, government and business leaders have the resources to help make it all happen.
Sustainability challenges
While we face several sustainability challenges, three of the biggest ones are depleting natural resources, mass pollution, and global warming.
Depleted Natural Resources
The world has become completely dependent on resources such as coal and oil, and even though they do a lot of good, they are also causing serious damage to our earth, and they are running out. Safer, greener solutions are needed far quicker than many realize.
Environmental Degradation
Mass pollution and environmental degradation are nothing new to us. Humans have been polluting the soil and sea for decades, and if we don’t change, microplastics in our fish and acid-filled soil are going to be the least of our worries.
Climate Change
Finally, climate change is another massive challenge we are facing. The combination of the problems listed above has led to our world heating up at a rate we have never seen before. Unless change is made en masse, we are quickly headed to a planet that will be too hot to sustain life.
Leadership strategies for a sustainable future
Finance Sustainability
The first way leadership, whether it be in government or in business, can help with sustainability, is to finance it. While this sounds obvious, many companies choose not to as they view it as too expensive.
This is the main reason why so many companies still use plastic even though there are better options; plastic is cheaper than the alternatives. This mindset needs to change if there are to be any lasting effects.
Don’t Cut Corners
If you are to work towards a sustainable future, you can’t cut any corners. Once again, this is often closely tied to not wanting to spend the money, but if companies and leaders are going to commit, they have to do it completely.
Collaborate
While it is always great to be first to do or create something, sustainability is about leaders and businesses coming together to think of solutions as a team. Having multiple people and resources available can and will only lead to better solutions.
Collaborating can also be the start of a wave that gets more and more entities on board. If two giants in an industry work together to create a sustainable future, it will only be a matter of time before more and more companies follow suit.
Think Long-Term
Leaders must often take a step back and think about the long-term benefits of what they are doing, as opposed to the short-term difficulties or financial requirements. Considering it has taken decades for these problems to manifest, they aren’t going to be fixed overnight.
It is also important to put success and financial gain aside for yourself; many solutions will take years to yield a positive outcome, and you, as a leader, may have long since departed your position. Don’t think about the rewards you could receive, but instead think about the bigger picture.
Use Power to Educate
If you look at companies such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or Amazon, there is more than enough money and resources available to educate people about the benefits of sustainability. While companies should be the ones leading the way, citizens also have their part to play.
Business and governmental leaders should use their immense power and reach to make sustainability not only an understood topic but a popular one too.
Creative Solutions
Many people become leaders in business due to their ability to invent creative solutions to every day problems. If you have the workforce, tools, and resources available, using them to create sustainability solutions should be a no-brainer.
Even if you can’t think of a new solution, improving on a current one can help it become more mainstream in the future, bring the price down, and make it more accessible.
Work with Start-Ups
Finally, one of the best things a leader can do is to work with sustainability start-ups. All across the globe, there are businesses popping up that are looking for ways to create new batteries, plastics, cheaper energy sources, better ways to farm, and everything in between.
Leaders should stop looking only at companies that will make them rich and instead look at companies that have the concepts and ideas that can help us all build a more sustainable future.
