Subject areaProcess and organisation
Also known assustainable development
Sustainability is the ability of an activity to last over time without using up the resources it depends on.
It has an environmental dimension (the footprint left on territory and climate), a social one (the conditions of workers and of the communities involved) and an economic one (the soundness of the accounts in the long run).
The articles of the site use it in all three senses. For the environment, augmented reality reduces product returns and therefore their footprint. For consumers, a lack of attention to sustainability is among the reasons they turn away from a brand. For the economy, a model built only on continuous flash sales may not hold in the long term.
In the European Union, Directive (EU) 2022/2464 requires companies above a certain size to report the effects of their activity on the environment and society. A sustainability claim with no measurement behind it is greenwashing.
Source: Unione Europea, direttiva (UE) 2022/2464 sulla rendicontazione societaria di sostenibilità (CSRD), 14 dicembre 2022..
An example
A company that makes industrial paints replaces a solvent with a water-based formula and reports in the product sheet the figure measured by the laboratory. The customer can compare it with that of the alternatives; a generic claim, without measurement, would be greenwashing.
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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