ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY: CHARACTERISTICS AND STRATEGIES - ECONOMY - 2025

The economic sustainability is the use of different strategies to employ, safeguarding and maintaining human and material resources optimally, with the aim of creating a responsible balance and beneficial, long - term sustainability by recovering and recycling.

The general definition of economic sustainability is the ability of an economy to indefinitely support a given level of economic production. Within a business context, economic sustainability involves using the company's various assets efficiently to allow it to continue to function over time.

Economic sustainability refers to the current and future value of natural resources, such as drinking water. Likewise of products, investments, consumption, markets and the world economy. Long-term costs for the use of human and material resources are included in the economic calculations.

Economic sustainability attempts to meet the needs of humans, but in a way that sustains natural resources and the environment for future generations. An economy works in an ecosystem, it cannot exist without it.

The ecosystem provides the factors of production that sustain economic growth: land, natural resources, labor, and capital (which is generated from labor and natural resources).

Economic sustainability manages these resources so that they are not depleted and that they remain available for future generations.

characteristics

Sustainability is generally defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.

Economic sustainability offers a broader goal and some new products that companies can aspire to, helping them renew their commitments to core goals such as efficiency, sustainable growth, and shareholder value. Sustainable development is an integrated concept that:

- It requires satisfying the basic needs of the human being to aspire to a better quality of life.

- It is based on democracy, where the rule of law is based on respect for the fundamental rights of the human being.

- It promotes employment in an economy, whose strength is based on education, innovation, social cohesion and the protection of human health and the environment.

Main pillars

It has three main pillars: economic, environmental and social. These three pillars are informally known as profitability, planet, and people.

For a company to be economically sustainable, it must be profitable. However, making a profit at any cost is not what the economic mainstay is about.

Among the activities that conform to the economic pillar are compliance, good direction and risk management. The inclusion of the economic pillar and profitability is what makes it possible for companies to join sustainability strategies.

The economic pillar provides a counterweight to the extreme measures that corporations are sometimes forced to adopt. For example, immediately stop using fossil fuels or chemical fertilizers, instead of applying progressive changes.

goals

The implementation of sustainable development will require progress in three areas, known as the three pillars of sustainable development. These areas are environmental, economic and social.

The economic pillar of sustainability is where most companies feel they are on firm ground.

In order to achieve economic sustainability, a balance must be found between the three pillars in relation to their being viable, equitable and tolerable.

Through economic sustainability, poverty reduction, gender equality, skills development, clean technology, a clear institutional framework, economic growth and development are promoted.

This, in turn, will help a nation develop and meet its short-term goals with a long-term vision.

Importance of the environment

Although many economists disagree on the importance of the environment with respect to economic activity, the following facts are rarely discussed:

- The extraction and depletion of natural resources, as well as environmental pollution and permanent changes in the landscape, are caused by economic activities and can damage the environment.

- Many of the costs of damage created by economic activities are not absorbed by those who cause them, but by other people who do not obtain the benefits of economic activity or agree to pay those costs related to it.

Pollution is a perfect example. Companies can pollute to some extent. They do not have to pay for pollution, but society does it with dirty air and polluted soil, which affect the quality of our air, water and food.

This pollution can cause serious health effects, which can reduce the quality of life and health of the population.

- Humans live in an ecosystem and cannot survive without it. If we destroy the environment, we will ultimately destroy ourselves.

Economic sustainability strategies

Economic sustainability strategies generate significant economic and job growth, as well as sustainable businesses and community development.

Innovation, efficiency and conservation in the use and reuse of all natural and human resources is the best way to increase employment, income, productivity and competitiveness.

Economic sustainability strategies are the most cost-effective method to promote renewable energy and clean technologies, protect the environment, and prevent the harmful effects of climate change. An economic sustainability strategy has four key elements:

Savings

Cost reduction for companies, families, communities and governments through the efficient use of renewable resources, in addition to the reduction and reuse of waste.

Opportunities

Greater number of jobs and income due to business development and market expansion, due to the efficiency, sustainability and clean technology of the resources.

Talents

Investments in critical assets such as education, research, technological innovation, and modern business and workforce skills. People are now the most vital economic resource in the world.

Transportation and infrastructure

Implementation of a sustainable transportation and infrastructure, protecting and improving both the natural and built environment.

This creates more attractive, livable, healthy, prosperous, productive and efficient communities and areas in the use of resources.

Some strategies for sustainability are:

Efficient use of resources

The final strategy is to increase efficiency in the use of resources. While this is clearly important for sustainable development, it is too often assumed that using fewer resources means a lack of growth or development.

Using resources more efficiently is a strategy in a competitive business environment, because it reduces the cost of inputs. In some cases, such as in energy efficiency, this may mean doing more with less.

The energy efficiency model can be extended to other everyday office products. For example, the efficient use of paper products and related equipment.

Recycling and reuse

This type of strategy can also mean the reuse or recycling of waste from other processes.

Recycling is a well-known strategy for recovering waste that was previously taken to landfills. Materials saved through recycling make up for what must be extracted from the Earth.

However, other strategies include developing businesses based on reusing materials before recycling.

Businesses re-add value to discarded products, such as refillable bottles, dirty cloths, or tires, through activities such as cleaning, sorting, packaging, and remanufacturing.

Finally, on a larger scale, companies can form networks, using waste from one process as inputs for another.

While this is often done internally, more complex networks can be coordinated across companies to use more waste more fully, using an eco-industrial park strategy.

Exports

Traditionally, local economic development has focused heavily on the production of goods and services for sale outside the community. This brings money into the community, which is then filtered through it to support other jobs.

Export bases can be considered sustainable if they produce goods or services that use environmentally neutral processes or that will be used for environmentally benign purposes.

Finally, ecotourism, although it does not export a service, imports money that comes from outside the local economy and uses at least part of that money to protect the local natural features that are exhibited.

Importance

Perhaps most importantly, a sustainability strategy that is shared publicly can offer benefits that are difficult to quantify. Benefits such as an image of public prestige and a better reputation for the company.

The trend is to make sustainability, as well as a public commitment to it, core business practices.

Companies that lack an economic sustainability plan could be penalized by the market. On the other hand, proactive companies, who would see that the market rewards them.

For some companies, sustainability represents the opportunity to organize diverse efforts in a global concept and obtain public prestige for it.

For other companies, sustainability means answering tough questions about the how and why of their business practices. This could have a serious, albeit gradual, impact on your operations.

References

1. University of Gävle (2018). Economic sustainability. Taken from: hig.se.
2. Andrew Beattie (2017). The 3 pillars of corporate sustainability. Taken from: investopedia.com.
3. Sustainable Economic Development (2018). Sustainable Economic Development Strategies LLC. Taken from: sedstrategies.com.
4. Gregory Claxton (2005). Sustainable strategies for economic development. University of Michigan. Taken from: umich.edu.
5. CR Bascom (2016). From Economic Growth To Sustainable Development. Sustainability X. Taken from: sustainabilityx.co,
6. Study (2018). What is Sustainable Economic Growth? - Definition & Overview. Taken from: study.com.