Every year, World Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 as a powerful reminder of the importance of protecting our planet. EARTHDAY.ORG coordinates a wide range of events globally, with this year’s official theme being to ‘Invest In Our Planet’. This World Earth Day, let’s see how businesses can advance the world’s ESG agenda and invest in our planet.

Where are we now?

• Businesses globally understand that sustainability is no longer just a nice to have but a must have.

• Beyond the urgency for the planet, ESG initiatives can also help the company - by reducing expenses, improving the brand image, attracting and retaining top talent and building a loyal customer base.

What can you do?

• But doing the right thing sometimes gets sacrificed in the pursuit of business growth. To avoid this, organisations need to build a culture of sustainability at the workplace, so that ESG efforts don’t feel alien and are built into the company’s fabric.

• This can’t be done top-down; instead, a new approach is required, which involves everyone in the organisation. By driving home the importance of sustainability, businesses can garner support from employees and together, you can craft a company-wide sustainability strategy.

• This may take various forms, including:

• Small gestures like using regular coffee instead of pods

• Engaging ride-share or other eco-friendly transportation methods

• Adopting hybrid or remote working models

• Once your sustainability initiatives are identified, put systems in place to measure them, whether with a dedicated ESG team, or by using gamification. For instance, hold a contest to see which employee can ride a bike to work the most number of days in a month.

What’s next?

• Over the long term, the objective should be to have sustainability embedded across the organisation’s core.

• Management and employees should work to figure out how to integrate sustainability into business strategy and operations and tell the sustainability story to multiple stakeholders, including clients.

• When sustainability is done right, it reflects in the organisation’s culture. It becomes visible  in the company’s mission and values, and in the way employees interact with one another and with the top management.

Building a culture of sustainability in the workplace is a long-term process that requires commitment and effort, but the benefits are well worth it. By investing in sustainability, businesses are investing in our planet.