After reading about the various sustainability frameworks, it is interesting to see which components of sustainability each framework stresses upon. As a business student, I feel like I am drawn towards the frameworks which emphasize the importance of the business perspective and improving organizations’ sustainability efforts. Since I don’t know as much about environmental science, I didn’t understand some of the other frameworks as well due to the technical jargon. While I don’t necessarily agree that there is a “best” framework for sustainability, I think that the Sustainability Helix does the best job of integrating all aspects of sustainability together (society, environment, and markets) in order to create a cohesive and understandable framework for businesses to use in order to improve their sustainability efforts.
The Sustainability Helix provides an overall assessment of where an organization currently rates in terms of sustainability, as well as provides strategies that organizations can use in order to improvement upon their sustainability processes. Another important aspect of the Sustainability Helix is that it allows a company to track its progress in six different categories across all functions of a business, so that they can coordinate with each other to reach an overall improvement and to maximize the effectiveness of the chosen strategies. Further, the Sustainability Helix provides tangible strategies that companies can use to improve their sustainability efforts in specific areas of the business. I believe that this framework provides upper-level management a tool that can create strategic goals that can not only help their business thrive financially, but also in a more sustainable manner.
It is no secret that there is a huge shift towards sustainability happening across the business world. It is also extremely important that companies recognize this shift and start taking action. While I may lean towards frameworks that seek to benefit businesses, I recognize that all of these frameworks provide insight into how we can create a more sustainable business world. The Sustainability Helix is just one of the many different paths towards the same goal.