How to support sustainability in companies
A book that has just been published provides a good manual for guidance on a challenging path.
Sustainability that appears to be known about is the situation of many companies whose management only apparently knows the ins and outs of sustainability, and everything that follows from it. It’s not only a matter of accurate information and attention, but also of business culture which must, of necessity, change with increasing rapidity (albeit anchored to certain fundamental principles).
The introduction of sustainability criteria in companies has to do with organisation but also with strategy and, as mentioned, with the cultural substratum of those who work in companies. Niccolò Maria Todaro, Francesco Testa and Marco Frey wrote their “Integrare la sostenibilità in azienda. Un percorso strategico, organizzativo e culturale” (Integrating sustainability in companies: a strategic, organisational and cultural path) recently published in open access concerning these ideas.
“The integration of sustainability in today’s business situations requires (…) a profound change in how we do business, directed towards redefining objectives and priorities through the various areas of organisational action,” the authors state in the initial pages, immediately recalling the significant content of this change: the change in business strategies and model, in the methods of organising work, in the very ways in which people relate to work and in the workplace. Integrating sustainability into a company is therefore a complex question; on the one hand it’s a choice, but on the other, it becomes an obligation imposed by the situation which also represents a challenge “to the ability of today’s businesses to root the principles of sustainable development in their modus operandi, far beyond symbolic commitments and cosmetic initiatives”.
In their book, Todaro, Testa and Frey attempt to provide a map to guide those struggling to implement such an operation. It starts from delving into what sustainability truly is, then provides a forward-looking vision and, immediately afterwards, links sustainability to the need for a change in organisational and business culture indicated previously. The book then closes with two chapters dedicated to guiding the necessary change in the various components of business.
In their conclusion, the authors write that achieving corporate sustainability “does not constitute a static goal, but rather a continuous process of adaptation to, and integration of, diverging priorities and conflicting objectives. This does not end with the competitive structure of the company, but reverberates in the choices that determine the organisational structure, culture, and the role of people in the company.”
Integrare la sostenibilità in azienda. Un percorso strategico, organizzativo e culturale
Niccolò Maria Todaro, Francesco Testa, Marco Frey
Franco Angeli, 2024
A book that has just been published provides a good manual for guidance on a challenging path.
Sustainability that appears to be known about is the situation of many companies whose management only apparently knows the ins and outs of sustainability, and everything that follows from it. It’s not only a matter of accurate information and attention, but also of business culture which must, of necessity, change with increasing rapidity (albeit anchored to certain fundamental principles).
The introduction of sustainability criteria in companies has to do with organisation but also with strategy and, as mentioned, with the cultural substratum of those who work in companies. Niccolò Maria Todaro, Francesco Testa and Marco Frey wrote their “Integrare la sostenibilità in azienda. Un percorso strategico, organizzativo e culturale” (Integrating sustainability in companies: a strategic, organisational and cultural path) recently published in open access concerning these ideas.
“The integration of sustainability in today’s business situations requires (…) a profound change in how we do business, directed towards redefining objectives and priorities through the various areas of organisational action,” the authors state in the initial pages, immediately recalling the significant content of this change: the change in business strategies and model, in the methods of organising work, in the very ways in which people relate to work and in the workplace. Integrating sustainability into a company is therefore a complex question; on the one hand it’s a choice, but on the other, it becomes an obligation imposed by the situation which also represents a challenge “to the ability of today’s businesses to root the principles of sustainable development in their modus operandi, far beyond symbolic commitments and cosmetic initiatives”.
In their book, Todaro, Testa and Frey attempt to provide a map to guide those struggling to implement such an operation. It starts from delving into what sustainability truly is, then provides a forward-looking vision and, immediately afterwards, links sustainability to the need for a change in organisational and business culture indicated previously. The book then closes with two chapters dedicated to guiding the necessary change in the various components of business.
In their conclusion, the authors write that achieving corporate sustainability “does not constitute a static goal, but rather a continuous process of adaptation to, and integration of, diverging priorities and conflicting objectives. This does not end with the competitive structure of the company, but reverberates in the choices that determine the organisational structure, culture, and the role of people in the company.”
Integrare la sostenibilità in azienda. Un percorso strategico, organizzativo e culturale
Niccolò Maria Todaro, Francesco Testa, Marco Frey
Franco Angeli, 2024