Sustainability in the CSR (Corporate Social Sustainability, eng or czech) arena involves:

1. Value creation through benefits-creation for both companies and consumers: profit as well as people and planet
   • How transparently is your firm or INGO showing your commitment to planetary sustainability? Do you report on intermediate results or longer-term and ground-truthed impacts?
     • For instance, IKEA has some resources on responsible purchasers (English)/ responsible purchasers (cesky) (a udržitelnost). as they are committed to inputs but great questions remain such as how sustainable their stores are or how their consumers’ lives have changed for the more sustainable as a result of IKEA purchases or products.

2. Operations, products, investments can shape circular economy choices and improve social expectations of firms. CSR/SDG ones protect the environment and make sustainable choices all along the value chain.

3. How efficient is your operation, conserving the planet in production, distribution, sale, including staffing?

• Aligning with existing UN SDG indicators feeds global progress toward meeting targets of development. For instance corporations can and should measure and report on a variety of SDG indicators, both within their operations and their value-chains, including on gender and energy:

1. 1. 1. • Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls e.g. indicator 5.5.2 Proportion of women in managerial positions. Evaluating the company’s Human Resource hiring as well as those of suppliers in the value chain to foster gender equality.
         • Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all e.g. indicator 7.2.1 Renewable energy share in the total final energy consumption. Evaluating the impacts of investments on the SDGs is an excellent lens for for-profit and non-profit investments.
         • Goal 12. Responsible Consumption and Production e.g. By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse, indicator within the firm, e.g. reporting one the firm’s input to indicator 12.5.1 National recycling rate, tons of material recycled

• Aligning indicators is not only a slice in time. Companies and INGOs could also include feedback loops from their customers and partners on their progress, thanks to the impactful investments, towards a planet managing its natural capital/ environment, with more basic needs met through better governance and empowerment.

We have begun some work mapping the overlap in the Czech Republic. See our powerpoint on Sustainability/ UDRŽITELNOST. This is a continuation of work done with Impact Guild.

Valuing Voices’ founder, Dr. Čekan/ova believes that projects feeding into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals may not be sustained over the long-term and we must return to evaluate what could be sustained and what emerged ex-post. See a Dec 2020 interview: https://valuingvoices.com/interview-repost-why-measure-evaluate-corporate-sustainability-projects/ overview and the talk itself:https://www.besmarthead.com/cs/media/post/smartheadtalks-2-jindra-cekan-eng

That said, designing for sustainability is key and she is developing Sustained and Emerging Exit guidance in 2020. Stay tuned…..