The introduction of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 saw the adoption of 17 major goals by world leaders and subsequently, the cascade of these goals into business practice. Both political as well as business leaders understand that the way forward is to ensure sustainable growth and a more green economic orientation so that future generations are assured of continuity. Sustainability has indeed been synonymous with the 21st-century ethos. 

Companies and businesses have attempted to embed the SDGs into business practice but engage with the “triple bottom line” concept of people, planet and profit, where economic gains are balanced with environmental consciousness and a focus on societal well-being. The triple bottom line approach is seen as a manageable way for businesses to ensure they enjoy economic outcomes, but these are done in a way that does not undermine the well-being of society and the environment.

However, the complacency of business in attempting to pursue the triple bottom line came to a crashing halt when Covid-19 ravaged the business environment, which saw businesses having to scale back operations, cut down on human resources and essentially move to a “survival mode”. As the world is slowly taking steps back to normalcy, the concept of sustainability needs to be revisited.

An approach businesses should consider adopting is the “culture of health” (CoH) — a phenomenon advanced by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to advance health as the core aspect of human health in a diverse society. The CoH involves a four-pillar framework that examines organisational and societal well-being: employee health (the treatment of its workers), consumer health (healthfulness and safety of its products and services), community health (health and safety efforts in location of doing business) and environmental health (impact of operations on the environment).

The comprehensiveness of the CoH approach allows organisations to reframe their agendas to encompass individual, organisational and societal well-being as part of their strategic direction to align with the SDGs’ aspirations. This way forward argues for the involvement of businesses in creating a corporate “health footprint” for the betterment of businesses and society. What strategies may organisations undertake in each of the CoH areas? Some suggestions are as follows:

Within this pillar, organisations may embark on strategies that focus on the quality of their products, from their sourcing to the final outcome. Organisations may also impact consumer health by providing full product information to ensure products are safe for consumption. The consumer health agenda may be pushed forward through the adoption of “farm-to-table” strategies by prioritising local produce, which allows for the support of local businesses and reducing the carbon footprint from exports.

This pillar may include a wide variety of employee assistance programmes that cater for both physical and mental well-being of people at work. A good lesson taught by Covid-19 is how the issue of mental health has long been sidelined by organisations and with strategies such as work-from-home, a healthier and productive workforce has emerged. With employees being removed from what can possibly be a distracting social environment at work, they are now more able to focus on work and experience better work-life balance, which is likely to result in a happier, healthier workforce.

This pillar requires organisations to review the deleterious effects of their use of natural resources and production processes. The environmental strategies may be approached using two prongs: (1) the commitment to resolve existing environmental problems (for example, carbon emissions, food waste, poor management of water resources, waste disposal and other environmentally detrimental actions); (2) the commitment to adopt green practices (for example, shifting to alternative forms of energy and engaging in restorative or conservation efforts). 

This pillar emphasises the engagement of organisations with the local community to determine how a healthy and collaborative partnership may be forged. Organisations may prioritise hiring locals vis-à-vis outsiders or provide educational or training assistance to build the local talent pool and potentially provide employment opportunities. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly shown the lapses and fragility of the global economy, and with it a sound reminder that we need to review the way we conduct business. The driver of the future of sustainability is health in its various forms, be it the health of the individual, the community, the consumer and the environment. Embracing a CoH ethos allows organisations to further the agenda of sustainability by positioning themselves to successfully manoeuvre a post-Covid-19 business landscape through the increase of business resilience, supporting health and recovering livelihoods. It is, therefore, timely that organisations start strategising ways in which they become enablers of the four pillars of health.

Note: This is a project under the Sustainable Business Cluster (Sunway University) funded by Toshiba International Foundation. The grant members include Dr Tan Ai Ling; Prof Susela Devi K Suppiah (director of the Centre for Accountability and Governance Research); Dr Sivakumari Supramaniam (Department of Marketing Strategy and Innovation); Assoc Prof Dr Alexander Trupp; Ng Siew Cheng; Vijaya Malar Arumugam (School of Hospitality and Service Management); Prof Huong, T Bui (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan); Dr K Thirumaran (James Cook University Singapore); Assoc Prof Pham Hong Long (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam) and Assoc Prof Singhanat Nomnian (Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia at Mahidol University, Thailand).