Given the right tools, corporations can be a driving force for change. One example is the Future-Fit Business Benchmark which helps corporations be more sustainable. The methodology helps corporations identify what they can do to remove obstacles to peace and thrive economically.
Modern corporations are extremely effective and have the power to change the way we live, indeed they have changed the way we live. Could this power be harnessed for peace? Many are skeptical to this, given things like the demands owners and investors make on return on capital. The Future-Fit Foundation set out to develop tools that would help corporations identify and analyze how they can increase their value to society and at the same time work for economic success.
The Future-Fit Business Benchmark helps companies formulate business goals that are in line with what is required to sustain life on Earth according to best available science. It builds on almost 30 years of research and development by The Natural Step, an international not-for profit organization, which has established a globally recognized framework for sustainability planning using a set of science-based sustainability principles. The benchmark both translates those principles into goals for business and identifies the potential business benefits to derive from these goals, thus helping the corporation conduct its operations in a sustainable and profitable way.
“A future-fit® business is one that in no way undermines – and ideally increases – the possibility that humans and other life will flourish on Earth forever”
Since the benchmark methodology takes as its starting point the global challenges we all face it also establishes a very clear link between peace and sustainability – if peace is a natural state then allowing it to manifest in the system comes naturally as a result of removing obstacles to the basic conditions for the sustainability of the system that are at the center of global challenges.
The Natural Step’s senior advisor, Richard Blume, sits on Release Council for the Future-Fit Business Benchmark and describes it like this:
“The Future-Fit approach translates sustainability science into a language relevant for businesses, giving guidance on where to aim to, how far we need to go and the benefits. Even if businesses don’t identify with peace processes or focus on issues in zones of conflict, by striving to be Future-Fit they are supporting a system-level outcome of global sustainability. Framing peace and sustainability together like this gives an opportunity for every individual and organisation to proactively contribute to the process of creating a thriving future for all”.
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