What is the definition of sustainable development?
Conceived in the early 1970s, the notion of sustainable development first appeared officially in 1987 in the “Brundtland” report, commissioned by the World Commission on Environment and Development, a UN body then chaired by Norwegian-born
Gro Harlem Brundtland
. It states that ” sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs “. It is based on the idea that natural resources are not inexhaustible and that it is necessary to preserve the planet. This environmental pillar is complemented by two others: the social pillar and the economic pillar.
In 1992, the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro went a step further and introduced a more economic dimension to the concept, to involve players other than NGOs. This seminal event gave rise to three international treaties:
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- United Nations Framework Convention on Biodiversity
- United Nations Framework Convention on Desertification
The first, and best-known, provides the framework for annual multilateral negotiations: the COPs(Conferences of the Parties). In 1997, COP 3 led to the Kyoto Protocol, and in 2015, COP 21 to the Paris Climate Agreements. The 1992 Summit will be followed by the Rio + 10 Summit in Johannesburg in 2002, and the Rio + 20 Summit in 2012, again in Rio.
Over the years, sustainable development has steadily gained in importance, developing tools and indicators and voluntary standards to build, manage and assess the policies implemented. Examples include ISO 14001, which can lead to certification of the same name, and ISO 26000.
More recently, the UN adopted 17 goals for humanity and the planet. These Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and improve the daily lives of all the world’s citizens by 2030. The SDGs are to be incorporated into the CSR policies of companies and organizations.
What are the sustainable development professions?
The ever-increasing and ambitious challenges of sustainable development call for professional expertise. Over the past twenty years, new professions have been created and structured.
These are primarily CSR managers or sustainable development managers. They steer the CSR approach implemented by the company or institution, and ensure that it is applied. This governance role must also enable them to verify the effectiveness of the policies deployed, with the help of carefully chosen indicators, using relevant measurement tools and supported by certification and standardization bodies.
The eco-designer profession provides companies with a skill that is essential to their ecological approach. Working in design offices or R&D departments, eco-design professionals provide advice and support in developing products and services that minimize environmental impact. Engineers, experts, project managers… Eco-design professions can be found in a wide range of sectors, with high added value in industry. They need to be in constant dialogue with marketing.
Sustainable development also opens the way to other positions: HSE/QSE managers, environmental lawyers, communications officers specializing in environmental issues, engineers in the field of renewable energies, etc.
What’s the link between sustainable development and CSR?
Sustainable development is a holistic concept, and CSR is just one aspect of it for one category of players: companies. Hence the E of CSR (corporate social responsibility). The acronym is sometimes mutated into RSO, for “responsabilité sociétale des organisations”. In France, the notion of responsibility has been taken a step further since the PACTE Act, which created the concept of the mission-driven company.
Like SD, CSR is built around three pillars: social, economic and ecological. More than sustainable development, which is still very much associated with the ecological crisis, CSR is particularly concerned with the social pillar, around the notions of territorial anchoring, well-being in the workplace, equality, diversity and probity. CSR is also closely linked to the notion of extra-financial reporting, around ESG criteria (environment, social, governance), and must play into the hands of the social economy (SSE).
Deploying a CSR policy involves all departments in the organization, at every level of the organization chart, in order to activate all possible levers and achieve a high level of stakeholder support. A number of reference frameworks facilitate the construction, monitoring and evaluation of a CSR approach. Such is the case with the voluntary ISO 26000 standard: it provides guidelines for concrete, relevant actions in favor of sustainable development, with a 7-pillar approach.
The company can also define CSR actions based on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
What’s the link between sustainable development and the environment?
Literally, the concept of sustainable development is above all a representation of the ecological crisis: it is essentially based on environmental objectives, proposing to “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
Gradually, the concept was broadened to include both economic and social dimensions. But the environment remains at the heart of sustainable development. The proof: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by UN member states in 2015, give pride of place to ecological issues: drinking water and sanitation, aquatic life, clean energy, etc. Several of the SDGs are directly linked to the preservation of the planet and its resources. Although these objectives are not binding, they fit in perfectly with the CSR initiatives of companies and organizations.
In the same spirit, local authorities can make the link between sustainable development and the environment around the concept of the sustainable city. Even if other criteria – such as territorial cohesion – are included, ecology and resource preservation remain at the heart of these territorial approaches.
What’s the link between sustainable development and the circular economy?
Sustainable development implies putting an end to a linear economic model, based on the logic of extract-produce-consume-throw away, and moving towards a circular economy, less predatory of natural resources, reducing waste and transforming waste into resources.
The circular economy is therefore fully integrated into the concept of sustainable development, without being reduced to recycling. Standard XP X30-901 recommends a 3×7 matrix approach to the subject, taking into account the three dimensions of sustainable development (environment, economy, society) and the seven action areas of the circular economy:
- sustainable supply
- ecodesign
- industrial symbiosis
- functionality economy
- responsible consumption
- extended useful life
- efficient management of end-of-life materials and products.
What are the standards for sustainable development?
There are many labels, standards and benchmarks for sustainable development. They give even more meaning to companies’ CSR initiatives by enabling them to speak the same language, use relevant common indicators and validate the actions deployed. In terms of sustainable development, these standards provide a precise framework of environmental protection requirements. We’re talking here about voluntary standards, not coercive measures in the body of national or European legislation and regulations.
One of the best-known ISO standards is ISO 14001, for setting up, monitoring and certifying an environmental management system (EMS). It provides the means to monitor the environmental impact of the company’s activities, in continuous improvement mode, and measures the effectiveness of the actions implemented.
Another key voluntary standard is ISO 26000. Published in 2010 and soon to be revised, it provides a universal reading grid for sustainable development issues, enabling us to build a solid CSR 26000 approach that leaves nothing to chance. It is within the reach of any organization wishing to commit to a sustainable development approach. At the beginning of 2020, the agri-food industry turned it into a specific standard: ISO/TS 26030.
On the circular economy, professionals meeting in the AFNOR standardization commission have drawn up standard XP X30-901, published in October 2018. It provides companies with an overview of the subject, based on the three pillars of sustainable development and the seven entries of the circular economy. Another French reference text is NF X30-264. It offers a methodology for deploying an eco-design approach, with products and services that minimize their impact on the environment.
Is there a “sustainable development” label or certification?
Rather than proclaiming that they are exemplary in terms of sustainable development, companies and organizations can have their efficiency verified by a third-party certifying body, which will come to their premises to verify it objectively and impartially. A good way to avoid being accused of greenwashing!
The third-party certifier will examine the company’s actions and management according to the reading grid provided by the voluntary ISO 26000 standard and, in the background, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). AFNOR Certification does this in the form of an assessment leading to the Engagé RSE label. It can also help companies in the same sector to build their own ISO 26000-inspired reference framework, with a sector label at the end. AFNOR Certification is working with professional federations as part of a partnership with the government’s CSR Platform.
What does ISO 26000 say about sustainable development?
Published in 2010 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the voluntary ISO 26000 standard was developed in consultation with nearly 90 countries worldwide. It can be adapted to any type of organization wishing to embark on a sustainable development approach, by providing a seven-entry reading grid:
- Governance of the structure
- Human rights
- Working conditions and relations
- Environmental responsibility
- Fair practices
- Consumer issues and consumer protection
- Communities and local development.
ISO 26000 thus provides guidelines for a common approach to the subject of sustainable development. The guidelines offer more than 450 recommendations on the principles and issues of corporate social responsibility, so that companies can make an active contribution.
Although published later, all the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals can be addressed using ISO 26000. The correspondence between ISO 26000 and the ODD is also on the agenda for the revision of the standard, which is due to start in 2020.
What is the definition of the SDGs?
Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 to succeed Agenda 21 of 1992 and then the Millennium Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) consist of a development program that respects people and nature by 2030, and broken down into 17 targets:
- Poverty eradication
- Fight against hunger
- Good health and well-being
- Access to quality education
- Gender equality
- Access to safe water and sanitation
- Reliable, sustainable, modern energy at an affordable price
- Access to decent jobs
- Building a resilient infrastructure, promoting sustainable industrialization that benefits all, and fostering innovation
- Reducing inequality
- Sustainable cities and communities
- Responsible consumption and production
- Combating climate change
- Conserve and sustainably use the oceans and seas for sustainable development
- Life on earth
- Justice and peace
- Partnerships to achieve objectives
States, companies, local authorities, NGOs, citizens… All types of players are invited to refer to the SDGs and build their CSR approaches or their sustainable development policies around them. The voluntary ISO 26000 standard is a practical and recognized means of achieving this.
What is the definition of the circular economy?
According to ADEME, the circular economy “refers to an economic model whose objective is to produce goods and services in a sustainable way, by limiting the consumption and wastage of resources (raw materials, water, energy) as well as the production of waste. The aim is to break with the linear economic model (extract, manufacture, consume, throw away) in favor of a circular economic model”.
By extending the useful life of products, encouraging reuse and developing waste recovery and recycling, the circular economy promotes a closed-cycle approach that respects natural resources and limits waste. The voluntary standard XP X30-901 offers a reading of the subject in 7 entries:
- sustainable supply
- ecodesign
- industrial symbiosis
- functionality economy
- responsible consumption
- extended useful life
- efficient management of end-of-life materials and products.
How to deploy a circular economy approach?
Waste recovery, eco-design of products, the fight against food waste… There are an increasing number of examples of actions that adopt the principle of the circular economy. Corporate awareness is twofold: it’s based both on the idea of preserving our environment and on making substantial savings. To achieve this, companies and local authorities need to embrace a new paradigm and change their business model. They are moving from a linear to a circular economy. A change of direction and strategy that requires reflection and support.
For a successful circular economy approach, it is advisable to rely on voluntary standards, and to have the solidity of your approach recognized through certification. AFNOR Certification offers an AFAQ Circular Economy assessment, based on the XP X30-901 standard. It validates the organization’s ability to deploy and sustain a circular economy project that meets the 3 challenges of sustainable development and its 7 areas of action.
What are the jobs in the circular economy?
Circular economy professions can be found in three areas:
- Waste management and recycling in particular
- Business players (eco-design, R&D, marketing)
- Consumer demand and behavior
In the eco-design field, we are mainly looking for engineers, eco-designers and eco-designers, whose mission is to evaluate and design products and technical solutions that limit environmental impact. Expertise in life cycle assessment (LCA) is required.
To help companies make the transition to a circular economy model, a number of people have been trained and a number of people have been appointed as project leaders, directors and strategic managers, who set the company’s direction and liaise with subcontractors.
When it comes to recycling plastic or construction waste, operators or sorters work in recycling centers, sorting, packaging and reselling the materials collected.
Numerous other professions associated with the circular economy contribute to the professionalization of the sector on a daily basis. This is the case for the reuse and recycling professions, often affiliated with the social and solidarity economy (SSE), circular economy awareness-raising and agricultural methanization.
