Is sustainability a commercial reality?

“A business is like a car or a human body,” Mattison told the 600 delegates attending the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa's annual ECR conference currently taking place at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. ECR stands for Efficient Consumer Response and is a supply chain global standard.

“A car needs to be serviced; a human body needs to be fed and taken for regular medical check-ups in order to make it stable and sustainable, otherwise it will stop working.”

Mattison said that the issue of sustainability needs to be understood from three different perspectives, the financial, societal and environmental sustainability.

In his understanding, accounting and financial reporting's fundamental flaws is the number one obstacle to achieving financial sustainability – something he said could lead to bankruptcy.

'Fairness'

To make sense of societal sustainability, one needs to understand economics and politics and apply a great deal of fairness, Mattison said, adding that selfishness, human inability to balance between greed and need and the ‘who cares' attitude and the powerful influence of media are the major problems facing societal sustainability.

“First of all, admit that great socio-economic injustices have taken place in the past and therefore ensure that your business plays an important part in transforming society by helping the needy and alleviating poverty and perhaps applying concepts such as BEE might help address those imbalances,” he advised.

Lastly, Mattison said that businesses face imminent danger in ignoring the environmental implications of sustainability.

“If we do not understand the earth and its components – humans, the weather and plants and animals – and ignore the environmental consequences and do not agree with its dynamics, we will take the pain and that pain will be enormous and massive, and will therefore damage our sustainability,” he said.

In conclusion, he pleaded with people and businesses to work hard to meet the needs of not only the present generation, but also of future generations – something he said could only be achieved if sustainability is understood with a commercial scientific approach.

The 2007 ECR Conference, which is sponsored by Chep, DHL and Hirt & Carter, is set to end on Wednesday, 31 October 2007.

For more information, contact the CGCSA on tel +27 (0)11 789 5777 or go to www.cgcsa.co.za.