The Four Pillars of Sustainability (2024)

The Four Pillars of Sustainability

Around the world we are seeing more efforts taken toward being more sustainable and environmentally conscious. The actions are often aligned with new local legislation, company policies, and even industry trends. It’s great to see so many businesses finding new ways to make their work more ethical and sustainable, but how do we measure sustainability? What key points should we consider when looking for a sustainable business to work with?

Sustainability is broken into four distinct areas, known as the four pillars of sustainability: Human, Social, Economic, and Environmental Sustainability.

Let’s take a look into what these pillars cover.

Human Sustainability
Human sustainability, as the name suggests, is focused on people. Anyone directly or indirectly involved are impacted in some way by the production of goods and provision of services. In this section, responsibility, capacity, and the development of skills are highlighted. These help support the operations and the sustainability positioning of the business, which in turn promotes the wellbeing of communities and society.

Social Sustainability
Social Sustainability has a goal of creating and proving social systems that make up the framework of the societies we live in. Here, we look at the bigger picture, using a global perspective to consider communities and cultures. Social Sustainability works to protect the future generations by reminding us of the impact of our actions if we aren’t considerate.

Economic Sustainability
Economic Sustainability refers to practices that support long-term economic growth, without impeding on the other sustainability pillars. This section is focused on efficient use and pragmatic management of resources.

Environmental Sustainability

Environmental Sustainability is what jumps to mind when the word ‘Sustainability’ is used. It is concerned with all natural environments and eco systems as these have crucial connections to us that we rely on. Its over-arching goal is to ensure the needs of the population are sustained without risking those of the future generations.

So, what should you do?
Firstly, its important to understand that sustainability is not a box to tick. It is a large ongoing journey towards a goal that takes time, money, and whole lot of effort to integrate. You should consider a business’s sustainability through the focus of each of these pillars. Human, Social, Economic, and Environmental are all aspects that must be included in order to be successfully sustainable.

Businesses with clear and effective goals should be devising action plans specific to each sustainability pillar. Strategic decisions can then be made to better incorporate the right strategy into their policies and procedures.

Arrow Uniforms have been doing their bit by working only with suppliers who are certified by world recognised organisations for ethical compliance and social responsibility. We have been re-developing supply chain and operation systems to achieve increased efficiencies and exclude waste. We believe in transparency, and you can talk to us about so you can better understand where your uniforms are manufactured, how they are made, and what they are made from. We are here to help and strive to provide you with the best sustainable service and outcomes we can.

Call us free on 050 UNIFORM, 0508 643 676 to discuss how we can help you.