“They’re going to lose their houses, they’re going to lose their jobs…this is like, the end of capitalism, this is like the dark ages all over again” – The Big Short

Debuting in 2015, The Big Short is an American comedy-based drama showcasing the 2007-2008 financial crisis. I remember watching the movie, in quiet disbelief that a financial failure of such magnitude slipped through all areas of caution, potential management, and mitigation.

The 2008 financial crisis was the result of unsuccessful systemic risk management.

A crisis that the Federal Reserve Board estimated to have cost every single American ~$70,000.

For me, this single example communicates the importance of understanding, managing, and mitigating systemic risk items. With that in mind, we begin this article on systemic risk.

In this Process Street article, we will explain what systemic risk is and how it differs from conventional risk. You are given tips to help you identify prevailing systemic risks so you can be proactive, plan for, and manage these risks for your business and line of work.

Before concluding the article, we acknowledge climate change as a potent systemic risk that urgently needs to be addressed and managed. For this, we give you free template resources, uniquely designed to support the movement towards business sustainability. A movement that runs hand-in-hand with carbon footprint reduction.

Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to that section. Alternatively, scroll down to read all we have to say about systemic risk.

• Risk management: Conventional risk vs systemic risk
• Systemic risk: An explanation for the concept
• Systematic risk: The difference and its relation to systemic risk
• Systemic risk examples
• Identifying systemic risk elements: Too big to fail, too interconnected to fail
• Systemic risk mitigation: Approaches to managing systemic risk
• Global systemic risks of today, a new challenge
• Climate change as a systemic risk
• Using Process Street to become more sustainable, mitigating against climate change

Let’s get started!
Continue Reading

90% of the largest companies are filing sustainability reports, with 80% of mainstream investors considering environmental, social and governance information when making decisions.

Understanding and practicing correct corporate sustainability strategies has never been more important.

In this article, we at Process Street explore what corporate sustainability is, taking a system thinking approach to acknowledge the complexity of the problems.

We then turn our attention to top business owners and employees across the globe, asking the question: How are you managing sustainability in your business day-to-day?

Here you are provided with our top 5 never-before-seen best practices to achieve corporate sustainability.

But before that, we begin this article with Process Street’s 6 leading corporate sustainability templates, which you can access for free.

Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to that section. Alternatively, scroll down to read what we at Process Street have to say regarding corporate sustainability.

• Corporate sustainability templates
• Corporate sustainability definition
• How to be more sustainable: System thinking
• Capturing opportunity for corporate sustainability
• Use Process Street as a tool to help you achieve corporate sustainability

Let’s jump straight to it!
Continue Reading

“Global stock markets post biggest falls since the 2008 financial crisis.” – The Guardian, 9th of March 2020

It was a Tuesday morning and my phone buzzed me out of my groggy, lethargic state, flashing open the above notification. The Coronavirus had hit businesses and our economy hard, potentially costing 2.7 trillion globally.

A viral risk, that went viral. Was something like this not foreseeable?

In this Process Street article, we turn our attention to the concept of business risk. As we write this article, the corona crisis is unfolding. We were warned about the risk of a virus outbreak but it appears we weren’t as prepared for it as we could have been.

But viruses are not the only risk we face. The 2020 Global Risk Report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) highlights a host of other risks, which we’ll turn our attention to in this article.

To get started, click on the relevant subheaders below to spring to that section. Alternatively, scroll down to read all we have to say regarding the concept of business risk.

• Confront business risk with a risk management process
• Business risk: What is it and why risk items need to be identified
• Business risks: Global business risks from the World Economic Forum
• What is a risk management process and how do we use it?
• Incorporating the Global 2020 Risk Report results within your risk management process
• Risk item 1: Extreme weather, cause, and economic effect
• Risk item 2: Climate action failures, cause, and economic effect
• Risk item 3: Biodiversity loss, cause, and economic effect
• Risk assessment: Why sustainability is part of a good risk assessment
• Sustainability risk management: How you can document your processes with Process Street

Belts and braces on, let’s jump to it!
Continue Reading

In the words of Jean Rostand, a French Biologist, and Philosopher:

“The obligation to endure gives us the right to know” – Jean Rostand, Silent Spring

Greenwashing, as a marketing tactic, thwarts our right to know as consumers. Unfortunately for us, 98% of green-labeled products are greenwashed.

Greenwashing is unethical. Greenwashing is risky. Greenwashing needs to be prevented.

You can think of this Process Street article as an antidote to greenwash. We give you the information you need to identify and stop greenwash in its tracks. We do this because greenwash is not good for you as a consumer, and it is not good for you as a business owner or employee.

Like Rostand, we at Process Street believe everybody has a right to know how green the products and services they purchase are. In this article, we provide information that will give you back this right where greenwash blots it out.

Paint strippers at the ready, it’s time to peel away the dross. Click on the relevant subheaders below to jump to that section. Alternatively, scroll down to read all we have to say.

• Greenwashing: Greenwashing definition
• Sustainability templates to help you create a more sustainable business
• Environmentalism: Fashion or passion?
• Greenwashing: A troubling evolution in the corporate world
• Greenwashing examples
• Greenwashing: You have to spot it to stop it
• Greenwash: Green companies and how you can be one

Let’s jump right to it!
Continue Reading

2018 saw the U.S. economy grow by 4.1%, well ahead of the trend.

Following this, U.S. President Donald Trump stated:

“These numbers are very, very sustainable. This isn’t a one-time shot.” – Donald Trump, Is the economy really as great as Trump says?

What did Trump mean when he said that this number was “very sustainable” – and was it?

In 2019, and as predicted by economists, the U.S. growth rate slowed down and returned to 2.1%.

Unsustained high growth rates are very common. It seems that the magic 2% has a gravitational pull, hauling back growth rates that increase over it. Is this 2% what economic sustainability looks like?

In this article, we at Process Street explore what is meant by economic sustainability. We look at the benefits economic sustainability can bring on a global level and at a business level. We suggest ways you can become economically sustainable in your business today.

Read through the sections below:

• What is economic sustainability?
• Is economic sustainability merely a myth?
• Solving the economic sustainability problem
• Why economic sustainability is important for your business
• How to be economically sustainable in your business with Process Street
• Reconnect with your wild side – reduce your ecological footprint and become economically sustainable

Shall we get started?

Continue Reading

You’re cooking for corporate success, but how do you know when it’s time to add a little sustainability into the mix?

Sustainability is the key ingredient, like the spice in your curry, or the sugar in your cake, that brings long-term economic prosperity.

So before you fire up on all cylinders, consider this: companies that adopted environmental, social and governance policies in the 1990s have long since outperformed those that didn’t today.

If you have read some of Process Street‘s previous articles, such as How You Can Create a Sustainable Business for Long-Term Business Succes, you will learn that there is a strong, unbreakable tie between our environment, society, and the economy. It is with this undeniable relationship, that GRI Standards reporting came about.

GRI Standards will help you produce a sustainability report, and by doing so, you are taking a huge leap towards securing business sustainability and cooking up long-term corporate success.

In this article, I will explain why GRI Standards reporting is important, what GRI Standards are, and how you can implement GRI Standards for the production of your sustainability report today. You are provided with free and ready to use templates for implementation of the three universal GRI Standards reports.

• GRI Standards 101: Foundation 2016 Checklist Template
• GRI Standards 102: General Disclosures 2016 Checklist Template
• GRI Standards 103: Management Approach 2016 Checklist Template

Ready to become a GRI Standards expert and start implementing GRI Standards into your business today?

Let’s read on!

Continue Reading

It was my first time visiting Sweden, and somehow I found myself hauling two baskets of milk containers to deliver to the local supermarket. Feeling like a recycling heroine, my ego was soon deflated when I realized my efforts were something of commonality in this country.

Recycling is part of the Swedish supermarket’s environmental management strategy and has contributed to the country’s 99% recycling rate. It is results such as these that make Sweden one of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world.

In fact, many Swedish corporations place the present and prevailing problems facing our environment on a pedestal. Why?

If you read my last post on business sustainability, you will understand how the environment impacts our economy. It is due to this deep-seated connection between economies and ecosystems that make environmental management so important.

Environmental management acts to safeguard nature from potentially damaging business operations, constructing a win-win situation benefitting the economy and the environment.

In this article, we at Process Street explain exactly what environmental management is, why it is needed, and how you can implement environmental management into your business today. We also have a bunch of free templates to help you apply Environmental Management strategies.

Let’s crack on and find out exactly what environmental management is.

Continue Reading

If there was a list of the “Top Ten Problems” facing humanity in the next few decades, what do you think would be at the top?

Well, it turns out Richard E. Smalley made such a list in 2003, and placed predictions about a looming global energy crisis at the top.

His prediction focused on the problem of the amount of energy being consumed, against the amount of energy being produced (as well as available sources of energy production) alongside the projected boom of human population to around 8-10 billion by 2050.

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of attention placed on the topic of energy efficiency and the relationship between energy consumption and climate change.

It is an undeniable fact that our global climate is rising in temperature. The science is there to prove it; the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and many other international organizations have acknowledged that recent years have been the hottest since records began.

As a result, intense weather like heat waves, hurricanes, heavy rains, tropical storms, and rising sea levels all becoming more and more commonplace.

Despite the rising tide of climate crisis, the demand for energy supply is at an all-time high. The global economy is insatiable in its demand for energy to sustain economic growth and development.

How should organizations prepare themselves for the inevitable challenge of sustainable adaptation, and for ensuring they have the tools in place to facilitate the systematic energy management approach that will be the core of efforts to improve energy efficiency in the future.

“Energy efficiency is the most promising means to reduce greenhouse gases in the short term,” – Yvo de Boer, Former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

A systems-scale approach is necessary if organizations want to seriously engage with difficult problems facing sustainable business and adapt for the future of energy management.

ISO 50001 is a standard designed to help organizations establish efficient and effective energy management systems (EnMS) and improve energy performance.

Based on the principles of continuous improvement and popularized by the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 management system standards, by implementing these standards companies stand to reduce energy efficiency costs, lower carbon dioxide emissions and prioritize the preservation and sustainable engagement with the environments in which they operate.

This article will provide an introduction to the ISO 50001 standard, with a simple explanation and tips for getting started with an implementation of your own using Process Street.

Thankfully, recent changes have made it easier than ever to implement ISO 50001 (and any ISO management system standard), so that will be a big focus of this article.

Here’s a breakdown of what I’ll be covering here:

• What is ISO 50001?
• What are management system standards (MSS)?
• Whis is ISO 50001 important?
• Benefits of ISO 50001
• How to get ISO certified
• ISO audits
• Transitioning from ISO 50001:2011 to ISO 50001:2018
• Using Process Street for ISO management

Continue Reading

It is becoming increasingly apparent that sustained corporate success lies in harmony with a healthy society and environment.

84% of business executives recognize the importance of adopting a sustainable business. Academics, such as the environmental economist Robert Mendelsohn, agree that sustainability is key:

“We can’t afford not to be sustainable.” – Robert Mendelsohn, Can we afford sustainability?

At Process Street we also recognize the increasing priority adopting a sustainable business model should have.

In this article, we explain what a sustainable business is, why it is important, how it can benefit your business in both the short and long term, and how you can implement sustainable actions into your business. At the end of the post, we provide you with templates that act as aids to make your common business processes more sustainable.

• What is a sustainable business?
• Why business sustainability is important: The three principles of sustainability
• A model of sustainability: Three-nested dependencies model
• Case studies for sustainable business
• The short term benefits of a sustainable business
• How you can be a sustainable business

Let’s get started.

Continue Reading