We must get serious about sustainability

Sustainability isn’t an easy subject to define, especially across the Middle East and Africa. For some organizations, it’s philanthropy and the donation of money to good causes. For others, it’s corporate social responsibility and supporting social causes through donations or volunteering. When it comes to our contribution to society, we believe that sustainability begins from within. Sustainability is in every facet of who we are, what we do, how we behave. And we’ve been recognized for our efforts; research company Corporate Knights recognized us as the world’s most sustainable company in January of this year.

Sustainability matters because our planet and the challenges we face cannot wait. Our approach is rigorous and our goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. More importantly, they’re also bound to the Sustainable Development Goals. Designed by the United Nations, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address every aspect of the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. Every one of our targets links to a specific SDG, making it simple to understand how we’re contributing to a better, fairer society.

We look at sustainability from two perspectives. The first is what we do – we believe that there’s a business case for sustainability, especially in the space that we work in. Our solutions help our customers reduce their energy usage and decarbonize; and this is a market which is going to keep on growing as the world pivots towards renewable energy. Today we earn 70 percent of our revenue from and we direct 73 percent of our investments towards sustainable solutions.

The second perspective is what can we do through our operations. We’ve set ambitious targets for transforming how we operate, for example decarbonizing our operations by 2030. We’re a massive company, employing 135,000. But that number doesn’t even make us be part of the top 100 companies. What matters is the influence that we can yield, with our partners, across our extended supply chain, with our customers and with NGOs and governments. Take for example our backing of the Res4Africa Foundation’s renewAfrica initiative, which aims to accelerate Africa’s sustainable energy transition and provide millions of people with affordable, green and reliable energy. The ability to partner and to amplify our sustainability work is both an immense opportunity and a crucial responsibility if we’re going to change our environments and societies for the better.

And whatever we do, we measure and share transparently with all. We introduced a sustainability barometer 15 years back; today, we report on our progress every quarter, alongside our financial results. The content of our sustainability program and progress on our sustainable impact undergo close scrutiny from auditors, a governance board, investors, customers as well as peers and suppliers, many of whom are looking for best practices and insights to drive their own sustainability goals. And as our sustainability performance is the responsibility of every person at the company, we are paid according to whether we hit our targets.

Forward-thinking companies make Sustainability part of their business strategy. And I’m sharing our story with you as we all have a responsibility to prioritize these issues. I have three simple pieces of advice for anyone who wants to do sustainability right. They are:

• Be Clear On Your Contributions – What is the difference you will make and why? Are you clear on how these goals are linked to your organizational purpose, and how it’s linked to the SDGs? If you are, then you’re on the right track.
• Be SMART with your Goals – You may know what you want to achieve, but are you clear on the specifics? Are your goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound? We set our goals every five years and measure progress on a quarterly basis. The more you are clear on this, the more successful you will be.
• Look long-term – We set short-term goals, but our vision is long-term. You must think about what world you want us to live in over the decades to come, and keep on your course, no matter the circumstances. Take the example of the pandemic; its impact has been dramatic, but it hasn’t shifted us from our sustainability priorities.

I’ll finish as I have begun and say that we must all be serious about sustainability. We are here to help, as well as to learn. Are you with me on this journey?