New website to help firms embed sustainability

Forum for the Future and the Technology Strategy Board have launched a free online tool to help organisations better understand sustainability and incorporate it into their business strategies

The new “Horizons” website provides information on environmental and social sustainability issues that are increasingly impacting on businesses and their operations, including access to fresh water, managing waste, land use and energy.

The site provides a brief overview of the topics, including a list of actions that organisations should, or could, be taking to tackle them as well as facts and figures, case studies and links to other resources.

The online resource has been designed to provide firms with the information they need to better understand the risks and potential opportunities posed by sustainability issues, and to help them incorporate mitigation activities into their business strategies.

“The sustainability challenge that the world economy faces represents a fantastic opportunity for smart and innovative businesses to create new products, services and business models. Bringing sustainability thinking into mainstream business activities is the most important thing we can do to make that opportunity real,” said Richard Miller, the Technology Strategy Board’s head of sustainability.

Forum for the Future’s Jonathon Porritt said: “We can’t predict the details of our future economy. But we do know the trends driving its development – like the rolling IT revolution, climate change, public trust, food security.

“These factors shape markets and disrupt business models. Business need to address the risk that presents. But crucially, there’s a huge business opportunity there for the taking.”

The Horizons website builds on the Forum for the Future’s “framework for a sustainable economy” and the information included covers three broad areas: environmental boundaries, social and political foundations and the essential needs of societies.

The site includes case studies from a range of firms, including Tesco, GlaxoSmithKline, Ford, GE Power, Veolia and 3M.