Sustainability is a concept that is increasingly being part of the DNA companies, which have progressively recognized not only the importance of advising good practices, but also putting them into action within their activities. And if environmental sustainability was the starting point, during this decade there will be an expansion into other fields such as social and geographic. 

Tiago Machado, team.it's Business Manager, says this, in an article published in Executive Digest, which can be read in full below: 

The first decade of this millennium was marked by a strong message calling for environmental sustainability, especially from 2006 when the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore – former vice president of the United States – directed by Davis Guggenheim. From the top of Kilimanjaro, passing through Patagonia, Antarctica, among other places, Al Gore exposed the environmental impacts caused by human activity and denounced the power that industrial lobbies exercised over the media to mask the situation that the planet was going through – and still crosses. 

Companies could not remain indifferent to these currents and terms such as “ecological footprint” became current and unavoidable by the communication marketing departments of almost all companies. Production processes had to be rethought, raw materials were in many cases replaced by biodegradable materials, renewable energies gained an enormous preponderance over fossil fuels. We were facing a completely changing business scenario, a change that was accentuated over the next decade, until today. 

But, in 2021, with a pandemic that affected virtually everyone on this planet, directly or indirectly, corporate sustainability – which had been almost synonymous with environmental sustainability – expanded to other fields of action, such as social and geographic. 

Remote work is here to stay, digital nomads are increasingly common, and corporate recruitment is increasingly on a global scale. The social sustainability chain ensures that companies are more concerned (and well) with the well-being of their employees. Retention is more and more a bet for companies and the balance between professional and personal life is a factor that no company can neglect if wants to keep its staff stable and happy. These premises are particularly important, especially in sectors such as technology, as they are highly dynamic and where the search for the best talent is global and incessant. 

Geographical sustainability has meant that opportunities are now also reaching new places. Before, highly qualified professionals were forced to leave and look for “shelter” in the large economic metropolises, where companies were concentrated and where there were almost exclusively opportunities and prospects for professional development. Today, we see competence centers in inland cities that attract and retain more and more young people in their localities and energize previously abandoned geographic areas. We are reaching a homogeneity of opportunities at a geographical level, where a computer and an internet connection make us able to work for any company, in any city, in any country. 

Companies that refuse to see this paradigm shift do not foresee a promising future and will certainly see their best professionals moving to other companies where sustainability is not just a buzzword. Even the most resistant will, sooner or later, be forced to join this new business scenario, where location, nationality, and borders matter less and less.