We believe the people component of sustainability operates in concert with environmental and governance factors in areas relating to social determinants of health, wealth and wellbeing.
Many employers believe it’s important to take action to inspire, motivate, engage and upskill employees in line with sustainability goals. Combined with the greater emphasis on sustainability strategy, these efforts also influence employer brand and culture, total rewards, employee engagement, and skills and work initiatives.
Companies that embrace climate and governance strategies and meaningfully embed them into their culture, programs and employee experience achieve greater levels of employee engagement and performance.
To better understand the connection of people and community to the other principal elements of sustainability, consider the potential impacts of climate change on employee wellbeing. While wellbeing is considered a social factor of sustainability, it impacts and is impacted by environmental and governance factors.
There are four pillars of wellbeing: physical, emotional, financial and social. All four may be impacted by environmental and governance strategies. For example, climate change could affect people’s health or financial wellbeing through severe weather events, extreme heat, air pollution, changing ecologies, and increasing water and food insecurity.
These factors reinforce the need for strong governance, as employees with poor emotional or financial wellbeing may be more inclined to take risks and ignore governance protocols.
We have identified five key issues that contribute to the people and community element of sustainability: