Sustainability, Circular Business Models and Hydrogen

It is challenging to define sustainability precisely. We can say that sustainability is a multidimensional concept that encompasses environmental, social and financial elements in a holistic manner. When I started collecting materials to write this piece, a poem by Robert Frost, "Road Not Taken", came to my mind. The poet implies that when we come to a crossroads, we have choices and make decisions that shape all that comes after.?Sustainability can be viewed as an exciting opportunity or a significant challenge. A significant challenge because it requires us to change. For some, change is scary!! For others, sustainability is an exciting opportunity.

Certainly, there is resistance when there is a change, but there is no better path than the "path of least resistance". If we can make our business sustainable, it will go a long way to benefit the organisation and build a better society and a better global environment. The organisation can achieve sustainability if the three dimensions of sustainability - environmental, social and economic - are pursued in the proper manner. This requires much forward-looking vision, foresight and strategic thinking. Sustainability has various meanings to various organisations, institutions, communities and people. Sustainability is often used as an umbrella term to describe the actions taken by the organisation to make sure that it lasts for the long run.

As a passionate manufacturer, implementing sustainability in the sector is always good to learn from past lessons in other domains. The Green Revolution in the 1960s made agriculture more productive and efficient. Still, it also caused pollution, destruction of natural habitat and further dependence on chemical fertilisers. We can see what happened. It has caused environmental degradation (global warming, CO2 Emission, air pollution, water pollution) and further dependence on fossil fuels. Sustainability is not simple. It is very complex. However, manufacturing companies increasingly talk about the circular economy to recover, reuse or recycle their products and chemicals to reduce their consumption of natural resources. For example, in the automobile industry, one of the major challenges in the future will be developing a circular economy model in which materials can be recycled for reuse in a closed loop in a sustainable manner, with the same or higher value.

Sustainability is a long-term investment, and this is one of the major challenges since the vast majorly of industrial R&D metrics focus on Return on Sustainability Investments (RoSI) or Return on Sustainability (RoS) measures. Sustainability could potentially boost financial performance in many different ways: innovation, operational efficiency, sales and marketing, customer loyalty, risk management, employee relations, supplier relations, media coverage and stakeholder engagement.

It is undeniable that manufacturing companies can benefit from sustainability initiatives (such as H2 initiatives). From both economic and moral perspectives, there are strong incentives for companies to embrace sustainability. The world is undoubtedly becoming ready to embrace sustainability.

Last but not least, how I can be sustainable? Like one of my favourite sayings goes, "If you think that you are good, try to be better. If you think that you are better, try to be the best".

Ahmed