As we celebrate World Quality Week 2021, we reflect on this years topic of ‘Sustainability’ and ask ourselves “what would be the point of a company producing a brilliant product or service, one that is loved by their customers, if, in order to produce the product or deliver the service, they had to significantly harm the planet?”
We are in a “climate emergency”, as recognised by the United Nations. With a global population growing steadily every year, some resources are of course not finite. Breeding more and more animals to pollute and heat up the world is surely not the answer! What was it the Iroquois Nation said about sustainability? Ah yes, in everything we do we should consider the needs of future generations, seven to be precise. That is quite an ask but an essential one they realised, and one that we are now realising even more as we continue to witness forest fires and extreme flooding across the world.
But wait a minute… there are deadlines to meet, burgers to eat, profits to make, opportunities to take, customers to please, Amazon buttons to push … how on earth are we expected to think ahead seven generations? But what if we were the ones born into the world several generations from now? Truth is, we are only just passing through. Have we reached the point now where the customer is no longer the no.1 interested party, even in an ISO 9001:2015 certified Quality Management System?
Forest Green Rovers, who proudly announced they were the world’s first vegan football club, recently launched an initiative whereby they took plastic out of the oceans and combined it with coffee waste to make football shirts – Wow! Tesla supports sustainability by producing electric cars with leather-free interiors.
“Achieving a balance between the environment, society and the economy is considered essential to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable development as a goal is achieved by balancing the three pillars of sustainability.”
ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System
