Wow, the last time I made a blog post here was Apr 2, 2017. At the end of my first year at UBC Sauder. Since then the world has changed a lot. COVID-19, recession, impeachment (x2), and a global climate strike, to name a few. But I’ve also changed a lot. I was able to do things I never would have imagined, travel to Kenya with the Sauder Social Entrepreneurship Program or go on exchange in Manchester, U.K. for 4 months. As I finish my last semester, I can’t help but reflect on the education I’ve received at Sauder, especially the sustainability courses I’ve been able to take.
I’m currently taking two sustainability courses to finish off my concentration in Sustainability and Social Impact, COMM 484 Sustainability Marketing and COMM 386L Impact Investing. I’m specializing in accounting, so taking these two sustainable marketing and finance courses is definitely something different, and really interesting. In fact, this is one of the reasons why I chose accounting (I’ve always appreciated being able to look at businesses qualitatively and quantitatively, which is basically what I think accounting offers).
But right now, I’m appreciating being able to see two sides of the same sustainability coin. These two courses have been very much discussion heavy which I absolutely love. Especially hearing different perspectives from my peers who also value sustainability. What I’ve learned with these two courses so far is that the world has come a long way into recognizing the need to be more sustainable, but more can be done. Whether it be through sustainability reporting disclosures or designing products that last longer for eco-conscious millennials, the call to do more and faster is as imperative as ever. Especially if the world is going to meet their targets set out in Paris (currently, most countries aren’t, the US and Canada included). World governments are going to reconvene in Glasgow, Scotland this November for COP26 (followup meeting to Paris) and what they set out will without a doubt have implications in business.
Source: United Nations
For a while now, we’ve heard from scholars like Michael Porter who say that Creating Shared Value is going to redefine the role of business in society. We’ve also seen business leaders like Yvon Chouinard who have successfully implemented these responsible businesses, but we’ve also seen such a huge shift from traditional firms like Blackrock or P&G to be more responsible. So it’s clear that firms really want to do better. The business case for corporate firms to be more sustainable, is literally and simply that it is more profitable to do so in long run. So as more and more students graduate from Sauder with this lens, I wonder what our roles will be as more and more firms also begin to adopt. Who will be the next entrepreneur with a green solution? Will there even be a need for a green advocate in a large multinational, or will it simply be the industry norm?
Source: Patagonia
(This post was definitely a longer one, but I just wanted to do an update and spew my thoughts here, I promise I’ll try and be more concise moving forward!)