Launch NEXT Study “Management Tools for Sustainability”

Keynote address by Oliver Laasch
Keynote address by Oliver Laasch

By Marília Carneiro Ferreira (Ideia Sustentável)

More than 200 executives, leaders and professional interested in the theme sustainability have participated of the launch of the 4th study “NEXT – Management tools for sustainability: five main challenges”. The event took place at the auditory of the Federation of the Industry of the State of São Paulo (FIESP), Brazil, in the morning of February 25. In the occasion, Ricardo Voltolini, president of the consultancy Ideia Sustentável and creator of NEXT – Observatory of Trends in Sustainability (an initiative of the Sustainable Leadership Platform), presented the main trends identified by the research:

  • Map and measure the externalities: to use tools that allows to identify the socio-environmental impacts and calculate the externalities with maximum precision;
  • Define material themes and strategic goals: prioritize material themes to measure what really matters and connect them to the strategic goals;
  • Mainstreaming sustainability through management: apply sustainability throughout the entire organization and not just in one area;
  • Generate shared value and Integrated Report: integrate the information about sustainability to the financial reports, valuing another capitals besides the economic one;
  • Promote connectivity of tools: integrate even more the different instruments of sustainability management, avoiding the waste of efforts that do not talk to one another.

Besides Ricardo Voltolini, the table was composed by the president of Espaço Eco Foundation (FEE) – the main supporter of the study NEXT –, Roberto Araújo, and the Deputy director holder of the Social Responsibility Committee (CORES) from FIESP, Grácia Elisabeth Fragalá. To Araújo, “the research content represents a practical contribution for those who deals directly to the sustainability management on their companies’ practice”. Yet Grácia celebrated: “Nowadays we seek to approach small and medium business to the discussions about sustainability from the standpoint of the strategy, and this study is the tool that we needed to achieve our aim. The CORES is pleased to consolidate the partnership with Ideia Sustentável and FEE”.

During the event, the public also counted with the participation of the main validator of the study, Oliver Laasch, a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research at the University of Manchester and founder of the Center for Responsible Management Education. As co-author of the book Principles of Responsible Management: Glocal Sustainability, Responsibility, and Ethics, the specialist spoke to the participants directly from England, about the importance of sustainability to both individual dimension and strategy – the comprehension of each one of collaborators from the organizations and also the insertion of the concept on planning and operations. For more information on the collaboration with the Center for Responsible Management Education, please click here.

 

About Ideia Sustentável

Ideia Sustentável is a company specialized in strategy and intelligence in sustainability, created in 1993 by Ricardo Voltolini, one of the first specialists on the subject in Brazil. With 20 years in the market, the company acts in a hybrid model – a think tank and a consultancy – developing and managing knowledge for businesses in three different front: consultancy, education and content.

Espaço Eco Foundation®

Inaugurated in 2005, the Espaço Eco Foundation® was established by BASF – The Chemical Company, with the support of GIZ, agency of German Cooperation for Sustainable Development. It is located in São Bernardo do Campo/SP in an area of approximately 300 thousand m², considered Biosphere Reserve of the Green Belt of the State of São Paulo by UNESCO. The Espaço Eco Foundation is a center of excellence in education and management for sustainability with the mission to promote the sustainable development in the business environment as well as in the society.