Faroze (left) voices his views during the ‘Driving Sustainability’ session with Benjamin (second left), Yusrizal (second right) and Ho (right). — Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING: Sustainability plays a very strategic function in the design of an organisation, says United Nations Global Compact Malaysia executive director Faroze Nadar.
He pointed out that this includes the direct reporting lines and the feeding of information which enables decision makers to make decisions in their day-to-day operations.
According to him, more leading companies are hiring chief sustainability officers who strategically draft the agenda within the organisation.
“Sustainability cannot be by chance. It must be by design. In any initiative, the structure must be supporting that design system,” he said during the ‘Driving Sustainability’ session at the Sustainability and Renewable Energy Forum (Saref) at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching, yesterday.
Faroze said there are four key factors which drive sustainability in the private sector, namely de-carbonising production processes, ensuring decent work for all, promoting gender equality, as well as good governance and ethics.
“But all these must be backed by data on how the private sector is driving this and resulting in two main aspects, namely business excellence and how we perform in the (United Nations) Sustainability Development Goals (SDG).
“This is a global agenda and everyone needs to take part,” he remarked.
He said at the end of the day, driving sustainability is a mindset shift.
“It is a transformative process that you need to take into consideration the risk and opportunity factors that were not very prevalent two to three years before.
“Now when you read in the local papers, suddenly there’s flood occurring in Melaka or this place has flood. There are new factors of risk and the consideration that we need to take in driving our business.
“This means that it’s disruptive and transformative and as such, innovation is the only way to think. It is no more business as usual.”
Faroze acknowledged that while this could be daunting and complex, the payoff is great if done right.
Joining him during the session were former mayor of Mandaluyong, Philippines Benjamin C Abalos Jr and Tenaga Nasional Renewables managing director Mohd Yusrizal Mohd Yusof.
South China Morning Post associate content director Reggie Ho served as moderator.