BCSD Portugal – Conselho Empresarial para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável presents the Sustainability Journey, the approach that continues from and succeeds the 2030 Journey, as announced in a press release.
According to the same source, in a context where environmental, social and governance challenges are increasingly relevant to the competitiveness and resilience of organizations, the Sustainability Journey aims to be a practical roadmap for companies seeking to accelerate their path toward more sustainable business models and aligned with international guidelines. This tool constitutes a strategic accelerator for the sustainable evolution of companies, regardless of their size, the sector in which they operate, or their level of maturity.
The companies that want to integrate sustainability into the strategy, operations and culture of the company will have to go through seven structured stages: 0) Self-diagnosis of maturity, 1) Preparation, 2) Materiality analysis, 3) Commitment and strategy, 4) Action plan, 5) Monitoring and continuous improvement, 6) Reporting and 7) Culture and Communication. This is not a linear or closed process, but rather a dynamic cycle, which should be revisited periodically. As circumstances evolve, new requirements arise or the company matures, it becomes necessary to re-evaluate diagnostics, adjust priorities, reinforce goals, and refine practices. The Sustainability Journey will never be completed, but it provides a continuous instrument of improvement and strategic evolution over time.
The Sustainability Journey also rests on 3 complementary components that work in an integrated way: the self-diagnostic questionnaire, the practical guide, and the toolkit. The questionnaire enables the company to assess its level of sustainability maturity, identify gaps and priorities, and obtain a clear view of the starting point.
The practical guide — a kind of ‘do it yourself’ — shares a detailed methodology that companies can adopt to evolve in sustainability and improve their maturity. Finally, the toolkit gathers documents and templates that support and accelerate the concrete implementation of the guide, thus accelerating the company’s evolution.
Once the questionnaire is answered, companies will be able to “fit into” one of the 5 maturity levels, which reflect the natural evolution of companies in integrating sustainability into their business model: 1) Awakening, 2) Exploring, 3) Developing, 4) Consolidating, or 5) Influencing. More important than the current maturity level at which the company finds itself is the commitment to progress over time, using the materials provided in the practical guide and the toolkit.
“Sustainability has ceased to be a peripheral topic, a ‘nice to have’, and has become an essential pillar for business success. Today it is a critical factor of competitiveness, resilience and value creation. Therefore, the Sustainability Journey was designed to help companies transform commitment into concrete action, with the aim of structuring their sustainability journey in a progressive, practical way and aligned with current international requirements,” says Filipa Pantaleão, Secretary-General of BCSD Portugal.
With the Sustainability Journey, BCSD Portugal reinforces its commitment to mobilizing the business fabric to build a more sustainable, competitive and future-ready economy.
