The Forum which was the #1 of the Economic Dialogue Forum Series powered and organised by the International Club and Think Tank, CAPITALS Business Circle, in cooperation with Global Sustain and SGT Tsomokos SA, was completed with great success and substantial and interesting conclusions. The Forum had a different, fresh and interactive approach to the topic, inspiring the technocratic and professional dialogue with arguments between the panelists, but also between the speakers and the audience.
Interesting Forum Facts and Figures
1. The Forum managed to attract international speakers, audience and support by Embassies (1), Bilateral Chambers (4), Business Associations (3), Cities (1) and Initiatives (2). 12 senior speakers participated interactively from politics, economy and business sector and two (2) came from abroad (USA and Bahrain). Almost 100 seniors from politics, diplomacy, economy, business and media participated actively in the Forum. The Forum had successful media coverage not only by the media partners but also by other well-known Greek business media.
2. Despite the various approaches and the different levels of optimism of the speakers about the future of sustainable growth, they all agreed that sustainability is an extremely important factor for the corporate performance but also for the macroeconomic prosperity too, having impact on both the microeconomic and the macroeconomic environment, in a substantial way. Apart from the impact on the planet and the people, sustainability has also a direct impact on the profit of the companies, which could be turned into economic growth for a national or regional economy. This is possible, if all realise that the resources on our planet are limited. Only then corporations will start producing in a more sustainable way and consumers will start consuming in a more sustainable manner. All underlined the fact, that sustainability is far more important and broader than Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It is a business factor, which has an impact on costs, revenues and productivity of corporations. It is also an economic factor with an impact on productivity and competitiveness of an economy.
3. An interesting debate took place about how realistic and reachable are the 17 UN Sustainability Development Goals and the EU Sustainability Goals and which are the best policies, ways and methods to achieve them. There was also a debate if there is a need to have a more binding framework, at least at European level, regarding the goals. There was a common thesis, that there is a need to raise the awareness of the topic in the business world, to include it in the public agenda and to strengthen the public – private cooperation in the field. Moreover, there was a common point, that policies about sustainability should involve all stakeholders from public, private business sector and civil society and that they should be designed for long term and take into account both the goals and the needs of the system, as well as the externalities. Regarding the consideration of the EU on the topic and the new EU policies, the importance of a new EU Directive about the sustainability reporting obligation, which should start being implemented from 2017, was highlighted. Companies should be aware of the new EU Directive which will be implemented by all European companies with over 500 employees. From 2017 onwards they will be obliged to issue not just a financial report but an integrated report with KPIs about sustainability.
4. Sustainability is combined with innovation and extroversion. There is no sustainable innovation and extroversion, if the factor of sustainability is not strongly present in both. This works vice versa too. There is no sustainability without innovation and in closed economy. Sustainability itself needs innovation and extroversion. Sustainability affects all phases of the supply chain from the suppliers, to the production and from there to the employees and finally to the clients and the consumers. All these phases should be sustainable with efficient use of the limited resources. Therefore the concept of circular economy should be considered seriously by many companies from all sectors. Sustainability affects many economic sectors though energy sector, environment and technology play an extremely special role. The more innovative and exports oriented companies an economy has, the more sustainable are these companies. The more they contribute to sustainable growth of the economy, the more innovation they bring. Moreover, sustainability is related to education, since the academia and the universities can play an important role to the education of young people about the role of sustainability and innovation. Wherever universities were connected to business ecosystems in a sustainable way, this resulted to sustainable business models and sustainable economic growth. The Silicon Valley is a good example.
Although it looks difficult for an economy in crisis like the Greek one at the moment, to have sustainability as priority, the Forum concluded, that exactly at times of restart of an economy, like the Greek one, it is the right time to invest more in sustainability, in order to build on a more stable base for a new, healthy and open to investments and exports innovative business model and reach the goal of sustainable growth. Attractive sectors where the Greek companies could invest more in advantage sustainability are energy, renewables, tourism, blue economy and education. The fact that more investors, apart from the financial figures, are interested in sustainability KPIs according to the UN supported Principles of Responsible Investments, gives an argument to the Greek companies to adopt these principles and be more attractive to foreign investors, especially now that the Greek economy is yearning for investments.
Overall, was concluded that sustainability is not the only factor for long term growth, but it is of strategic importance. It is not an easy path and it does not bring fast profits and short term growth. It brings long term sustainable growth, which should be the strategic goal for Greek and European Economy.
Therefore, there is a need for more sustainable corporate strategies in order to have more sustainable corporate profits with respect to the planet and the people, but also for sustainable macroeconomic and corporate policies in the design of the macroeconomy and microeconomy, in order to achieve sustainable macroeconomic growth.