Part 10/13 of the Business Sustainability in Nigeria Series with Adiya Atuluku and Jennifer Uchendu
As with any concept of business, there are guardians and regulatory bodies that help set standards and frameworks for activities within the business sustainability space.
Let’s meet some of the guardians below, we expect that both large and small businesses familiarize themselves with them as they offer many opportunities to develop a company’s business sustainability strategy.
What’s more, making good with these bodies can save the business unnecessary non-compliance costs, present several opportunities to access funding and financing that would otherwise be unavailable, gain technical and expert support at minimum costs, and network and connect with relevant professionals, amongst others.
There are several International guardians for sustainable businesses, the most common and influential being:
United Nations Global Compact: The UN Global Compact is an arm of the United Nations charged with assisting businesses in implementing universal sustainability principles and to take steps to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Via Local Networks Advisory Group, business sustainability strategies are assessed, defined, improved and also communicated. To join and learn more about the UN Global Compact, check here .
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD): The WBCSD is a CEO-led organization of forward-thinking companies that galvanize the global business community to create a sustainable future for business, society and the environment. Together with its members, the council applies its respected thought leadership and effective advocacy to generate constructive solutions and take shared action.
Membership is open to companies committed to sustainable development and to promoting the role of eco-efficiency, innovation and corporate social responsibility. Check here to learn more about the WBCSD.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification: Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices using global standards, for a building to be LEED certified means that they are energy efficient,using less water and energy, thereby reducing Green house gases. While LEED is not very popular in Nigeria, it is important that companies align with their standards to help them construct and maintain greener buildings. Learn more here
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): GRI is a global and independent organization that guides organizations on how best to communicate their impact on social and environmental issues. The organization has positioned itself to be one of the leading international sustainability guardians when it comes to sustainability reporting. Adhering to their guidelines is in no way compulsory, but because they have gained a lot of reputation and influence since they pioneered sustainability report in the 1990s, they are now recognized internationally as a standard that promotes transparency. GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Standards are used in over 90 countries by some of the largest global corporations. This has helped promote some sort of standard that ensures sustainability reports are comparable. Reporting using the latest G4 GRI Guideline will definitely get an organization noticed by consumers, competitors, governors, etc.
United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC): The UNFCCC was enacted in 2004 with 197 countries that have currently ratified the convention, including Nigeria. The Convention aims to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere in order to slow and if possible, halt climate change. It specifies how international treaties can be negotiated so that each country can set their binding limits. The UNFCCC recently organized a relatively successful negotiation in Paris, called the Paris Agreement, with the most number of countries (most notably the USA and China) in agreement till date!
International Standard Organization (ISO) 26000: ISO26000:2010 recognizes that businesses have a significant impact on the societies and the environment they operate within. As a result, it provides guidance and a framework on how organizations should operate responsibly to ensure welfare of societies in particular. The ISO26000 cannot be certified, but it helps willing businesses understand what social responsibility is, and how they can incorporate it into their operations.
Compliance with these international guardians are mostly voluntary. This is not so with most of these key national vanguards listed below:
Federal Ministry of Environment: The Federal Ministry of Environment was created in 1999 and has been working to coordinate efforts on environmental issues in Nigeria. So far, they have been mainly focused on issues such as waste management, deforestation and desertification, pollution, reclamation and rehabilitation of degraded land, climate change, and environmental assessments. Several environmental parastatals report to the Ministry. A good working relationship with the Ministry will certainly be beneficial, especially given that they have the power to stop certain projects that might have significant environmental impacts.
National Environmental Standards and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA): NESREA is all about enforcement…or at least it should be. It is the primary organization in Nigeria that monitors, enforces and punishes infringements into the many environmental laws and regulations Nigeria has – from pollution abatement to use and disposal of hazardous materials.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN): The CBN is the governing body for banking institutions in Nigeria, and has proved a pioneer in attempting to establish sustainable business practices within the financial industry. It has developed the Banking Sustainability Principles which Nigerian banks need to adhere to, at least to a certain extent, given that the regulation is relatively new (since 2012).
It is important to get acquainted with these relevant Business Sustainability guardians that provide in-depth support for sustainability practice, with the global goals as a guide, it becomes even easier to work with these guardians as they ensure that businesses regardless of location, size or turnover will work to achieve the sustainable development Goals.
Furthermore, due to changing times, the codes and conducts of some of these guardians change or are updated and thus it is important to keep abreast with them especially as regards to reporting standards as in the case of GRI.