Getting certified or taking a class on sustainability can help you integrate Sustainability in your business and get access to a wider range of financing and capital options for Sustainable businesses.
What is Sustainability?
Sustainability means meeting one’s need without compromising the future generations’ capacity to meeting their own needs. This concept relies on three pillars: environmental, social and economic. It implies that decisions shall consider environmental, social and economic criteria to manage resources and evaluate impact. In business, it means that there is a triple bottom line: economic, social and environmental, instead of the usual single bottom line solely focused on profits.
Per se, pursuing sustainability is a noble goal, for our planet, for us and for our offsprings. In business, it is not an easy feat because it comes with immediate costs and invisible long term gains. Luckily, a relatively new class of investors, the impact investors, has devised that it can also bring reasonable financial returns, which creates new opportunities for finding capital and financing for entrepreneurs and companies who pursue sustainability. With capital and financing available, it makes it easier to show that sustainability can also be good business.
What are the challenges of financing Sustainable Businesses?
Back in 2018, I attended the GIIN forum for impact investors in Paris. They celebrated the strong growth of the movement: over $227bn of assets under managements were allocated to mainstream impact investing according to the 2018 annual survey, twice the amount estimated the prior year).
Back then, what struck me was that the contours of impact investments were somehow blurred. The essence of impact investing is that investments generate both financial returns and positive impacts. Yet, the positive impact was far from a standardized concept. There was a wide range of discussions about corporate social responsibility, lowering carbon emissions, social impact bonds, access to healthcare, ESG standards, mitigating climate change, and blended finance. They discussed the challenges of (1) greenwashing and (2) measuring the impact generated.
- Greenwashing is the marketing practice conveying false impression on how a company’s products or services are environmentally sound. Fast forward, three years after, the EU introduced new rules to prevent greenwashing in 2021, at a moment when the impact investing market continues to grow: it was sized at $715bn in 2020!
- During the 2018 conference, the GIIN presented its IRIS impact assessment tool, and the IFC unveiled the IFC Impact Principles with its AIMM framework (anticipated impact assessments and measurements). Two tools aimed at assessing and measuring the impact generated by the projected funded and financed by impact investors and development finance institutions. Some conferences focused on technologies (blockchain, etc) that could help track the impact of project, and that could help craft impact strategies. To date, there is still no single overwhelming standard to measure impact, but being familiar with these tools is key for anyone who wants to demonstrate that one’s company is achieving the social, environmental and economic impact that they envisaged. Measuring one’s impact is a key step to demonstrate that one can achieve its sustainability goals.
Looking back at this conference, I felt that (1) some audit standards for sustainability would be needed, (2) entrepreneurs should learn about transforming their business models to achieve sustainability across social, environmental and economic criteria to attract impact investors and (3) young professionals would need to be educated on the matter. I even gave a class to the ESSC SMIB Master about “Development Finance and Impact Investing”. This is still relevant today in 2021.
What Certifications and Courses on Sustainability?
Getting certified in Sustainability can help you:
- demonstrate that your company respects sustainable practices to overcome the greenwashing challenge
- tinker your business model to embrace Sustainability
- attract impact investors and/or lenders for Sustainable finance
Here are some suggestions of certifications or courses:
- B-Corp certification measures a company environmental and social performance.
- In the construction sector, you have the LEED certification serves to certify that buildings comply with sustainability standards. Professionals can also get certified with the LEED Green Associate (if you’re new to the standard) and the LEAD AP credential (if you want to show off your expertise).
- In Singapore, there is another certification for building called Green Mark Certification.
- With respect to Circular Economy, there is the certificate from the Circular Economy Institute.
- With respect to sustainability reporting, there is the GRI certification.
Of course, top business schools have also their courses or certifications. Why wouldn’t they surf the wave?
In France:
- ESSEC Business School has created its chair for social entrepreneurship which developed various MOOC in French on social entrepreneurship and measuring social impact.
- HEC has a Master in Sustainability and Social Innovation
- ESCP has a Master in Sustainability Entrepreneurship and a Master in Sustainability Management.
In the UK:
- The university of Cambridge offers an online short course on Business Sustainability Management.
- The University of Oxford has an Impact Measurement program and several other programs on Impact Investing.
In the US:
- Stanford is known for its Center for Social Innovation and its Stanford Social Innovation Review. Stanford offers to its undergraduates the option to pursue a Master of Sustainability Science and Practice. They also offer a professional program called Strategies for Sustainability Program.
- Harvard has the Sustainable Business Strategy course.
Let me know in the comments if you have taken one of these certificates or courses, if you would recommend them, or if you have more recommendations.