What does Sustainability mean to Sustaira?
Hi there, welcome to Sustaira! We are The Sustainability App Platform Company. Great, right? But, what exactly does that mean? I want to use this blog as an introduction. Together, we will walk through what sustainability means to Sustaira, why it matters, and what we are doing to take “sustainability” and make it actionable, insightful, and rewarding. Let’s jump in!
Defining Sustainability
What are the first things you think of when you hear the word “sustainability”? Many people will say something related to climate change or responsible usage of resources. At Sustaira, our journey began by trying to find our own definition while keeping in mind that sustainability is not just climate. In fact, sustainability is about people, infrastructure, education, food, water, and more. What we’ve found is that all of these things are interconnected. The United Nations has become a core element in our approach around sustainability. It has helped guide which applications, templates, and features we want to add to our platform, and what order we need to do so. The UN published their 17 Sustainable Development Goals which provides a great overview of just how wide reaching and important sustainability is. But still we were met with how are we going to define sustainability?
“In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.””
This definition feels well rounded and doesn’t pigeonhole sustainability into one box. It's not just climate or gender equality, or education. It’s all of the needs of the present and future. I would argue it’s only missing one thing; mindfulness. We’ve adjusted the definition of sustainability…
“Sustainability is mindfully meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Why Sustainability Matters
Mindfulness or doing things “mindfully” has all kinds of definitions and even uses. I'm sure you’ve heard about practices in mindfulness and it’s applied to many things including meditation, books, work, home, relationships... The list goes on. At its simplest being mindful is just doing something, “in a careful deliberate manner.”
That is what sustainability needs today; mindfulness. Careful, deliberate, action. Sustainability in recent history is finally taking the stage and becoming a priority more widely spread. Scientists speak regularly about the impacts of climate change. The impacts of our Earth warming are felt across the globe, as are the impacts of the currently non-sustainable systems we’ve grown so accustomed to. Yes - sustainability is about climate change. It’s also about people and fixing broken systems so that we can grow with our planet, not against it. This ties back to the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals which we have referenced heavily to build our sustainability framework just as many other companies have also done.
Sustainability is about all of us.
We fully believe that organizations will ultimately be held responsible for their impact on the environment and their stakeholders. Gathering data and measuring KPIs will provide transparency to foster accountability. It’s inevitable that change is coming where the profitability is directly impacted and translated into the Profit & Loss sheets of organizations. This change is a real opportunity to differentiate and to be proactive, demonstrating and proving that actionable Sustainability initiatives offer direct value.
Sustaira invites all organizations and people to join the conversation. We are working FOR sustainability, not against it. That means partnering with other organizations and learning as much as we can from everyone we interact with. To join the conversation with us, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter!
What is Sustaira doing for Sustainability?
We are proud to present our concept of the Sustaira Sustainability Circle. Sustaira goes beyond Sustainability reporting and offers innovative apps within and between all of the Sustainability domains. The idea behind our sustainability circle is that regardless of where you might fall in your journey, that journey is cyclical and interconnected. This is where technology and sustainability meet. Over the next 6 weeks we will take a deeper look into each of these parts so that you can better understand what we do and how we do it. For now, I’d like to offer a brief overview.
The Sustaira Sustainability Circle
It all starts with a simple goal. From there you need to build awareness and gather data. This data acts as a way to see where you are now, versus where you want to be.
Now, it's time to take action and turn the goal you set into a reality. This is something Sustaira has noticed across the board - there are plenty of options when it comes to tracking data around sustainability, but the options around actions are extremely limited. We are building a few different solutions that allow you to take action, track your progress, and reap the rewards.
In our results and rewards section, Sustaira is providing incentive programs to do more with less. We are building another customizable application template that allows you to not only track your progress towards sustainability goals, but will build up points and achievements for reaching your goals. This is a great way to implement some friendly competitions, reward programs, or even gain some bragging rights.
Last but not least, we have digital reporting. Many companies want to be more aware and have better reporting around sustainability. The issue is that most have many differing systems or even paper based processes that make reporting a time and labor intensive project. After doing the work to make more sustainable choices, we want you to share your efforts in a way that is faster, easier, and ultimately more sustainable both for our planet and your organization. With digital reporting through Sustaira you can do just that.
To actually implement each part of the Sustaira Sustainability circle, we have created three different solutions you can choose from. You can even mix and match!
Our All-In-One Sustainability Application Platform
This platform allows you as a customer to pick and choose which components/modules you would like to activate. You can even add fully custom (templated) apps or existing Sustainability applications to the Sustaira launchpad to create a unique and single-view Sustainability platform for your organization. From goal setting, to raising awareness, to taking action, all the way to results and reporting. Sustaira offers online functionality for each step of the sustainability journey.
Fully Customizable Application Templates
Our application templates are basically pre-made apps that are about 70% completed. We leave that last 30% open so that we can customize each application to fit your organization perfectly. Our expert team of developers will work hand in hand with your team to ensure that each template truly fits your needs. Some of our applications include:
Sustainability Goals & KPI Tracker
Carbon Footprint Calculator
Carbon Offsetting Employee Program
Equality & Diversity
Gamification
Custom Application Projects
There are unique projects within sustainability that require extensive specialization, expertise, and attention. For those, our expert development team can take your ideas and bring them to life.
Our team uses an Agile Methodology which means we work alongside your team the entire time. These custom projects can be web and/or mobile initiatives and Sustaira offers you the expertise and technology to enable your fully custom project.
Now you know a little bit more about what sustainability means to Sustaira, why it matters, and what we are doing to make it actionable, insightful, and rewarding. I invite you to take a moment and look inwards. What is your definition of sustainability? Is your organization struggling with goal setting, or action taking, or reporting? Perhaps, Sustaira can help! To get in touch, head over to our contact page and send us an email! You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter (below), and be sure follow us on social media to stay up to date on all that Sustaira is doing.
Last and certainly not least, don’t miss out on our upcoming event! We are hosting our first ever Sustaira webinar at the end of this month. Register now for Part 1 of our 3 Part webinar series on Thursday, October 28th at 11:00am EST. Part One: Meet Sustaira will not only introduce Sustaira, but you’ll get a first look at our all-in-one sustainability platform and we even have a demo prepared so that you can see how it all works.
