Business Needs Sustainable and Long-term Ecological Approaches

Caucasus Business Week talked with Tamar Lazarashvili, Environmental Management Expert at CiDA/Global Compact Network Georgia. 

Tamar, you are heading environmental issues at your organization which is mainly working with business companies; How would you assess private companies’ engagement and interest in environmental issues?

There might be different interests and motives for companies to improve their environmental performance. For example, there are different environmental laws, policies and standards that Georgia has already implemented or is going to implement and enforce under the EU-Georgia Association Agreement in order to protect environment and guarantee people’s well-being. Violation of the obligations under these laws may result in different sanctions and fines for companies and it is in their interest to comply with the rules.

Besides, being environmentally friendly, it also has its reputational benefits for companies: it makes them more competitive on the market and attractive for investors, partners or customers.

Furthermore, nowadays there are a number of grants and different financial mechanisms to help to start and develop green business that, on the one hand, contributes to the economic development of companies, and, on the other hand, protects environmental interests of our society.

Nowadays, companies in Georgia start to take into consideration environmental issues and take responsibility in this regard, however, this is a long development process that needs further cooperation among governmental and non-governmental organizations, international partners, private sector and individuals.

What should companies do to make their businesses environment-friendly? Does your organization offer any kind of support to make their environmental policies more sustainable?

First of all, companies should implement environmental assessment procedures in order to understand what kind of impacts they have on environment and how they can improve their environmental performance.

They need to assess how efficiently and rationally they use resources and what can be done in order to contribute to sustainability goals, for example, how they can use environmentally friendly alternatives instead of damaging materials or processes in their business or how to avoid non-essential travel and reduce their carbon footage. Frequent trainings and workshops are also very important for raising awareness of the employees and being updated to recent developments in an environmental field.

Our organization (Global Compact Network Georgia) helps its member companies exactly with the above mentioned issues, specifically, it helps them to harness essential skills and knowledge on green economy through workshops, coaching, encourages to take specific practical actions to make their business more sustainable; provides them with useful tools for addressing their environmental issues and being in compliance with legal and environmental management system requirements. 

They say that one of the “positive” side we could see in spreading COVID-19 worldwide is that air pollution and greenhouse gas emission are fallen. What is the prediction regarding the issue, what kind of impact should we expect from Covid-19 on the environment?

Yes, positive impacts on environment, whether through improved air quality or reduced greenhouse gas emissions, is visible and it is directly linked to drastic drop in industrial activities, general traffic and global airline traffic (heavy emitter) as a result of governments reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide.

But this drop in air pollution and emissions is temporary because when the global economic machine turns back on, the desire to recover from the economic crisis might impact environment more if precautionary approach to environmental challenges is not considered.

It should also be noted that the COVID-19 pandemic will result in an increase in the amounts of single-use plastic, medical and hazardous waste generated that might have negative impact on environment if not managed properly.

In the aftermath of the crisis, businesses should think of changing their production and consumption habits towards cleaner and greener ones, because only long-term systemic shifts will change the trajectory of CO2 and other greenhouse gases levels in the atmosphere.

Your organization represents Global Compact local network in Georgia, world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative; what are their recommendations to the companies in terms of protecting environment?

The UN Global Compact has recently issued the Special Appeal (can be seen at Global Compact Network Georgia webpage at: globalcompact.ge) recommending business leaders everywhere to use the Ten Principles as their guide in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak and called for closer cooperation among all business entities to support affected people and companies and contribute to their swift recovery in post-crisis period.

In regard to environmental protection, it recommends companies to encourage telecommuting and virtual meetings which can reduce negative impacts on the environment caused by carbon footprint from travelling to a workplace, to develop and diffuse environmentally friendly technologies.

What would be your recommendations to the businesses and to the society in order to maintain the healthy lifestyle and try to reduce our planet’s pollution after COVID-19?

Nowadays, when it becomes clear, how much our unsustainable economic activities, use of transport have negative impact on our environment and health, it is time to think about sustainable and long-term ecological approaches while planning our personal or business activities.

Hence, our recommendations to business sector are the following:

• Give preference to eco-friendly and public transport;
• Encourage virtual meetings and have some staff members working from home, whenever possible;
• Reduce non-renewable natural resources, use more renewable energy;
• Use resources efficiently, reuse, recycle and remanufacture already used materials;
• Reduce and properly manage generated waste.
• Always remember, that air quality matters and the better we manage environment, the better we manage human health.

This article has been published within the Swedish Government funded project "Leadership for SDG in Georgia".