pandemics
in the age of pandemics, does sustainability really matter?
We took a deep dive into this, since the debate was on the table. The three biggest statements from clients that kept arising were:
“I need to keep my business afloat and have no way to pay for any type of sustainable efforts.”
“The health of my employees (or family) is my utmost priority, there is no way to think about sustainability or think about trying to help the planet.”
“If anything, I need to cut my sustainability department, to keep my business operating.”
As you can see and perhaps something you’ve said or thought about. Why would sustainability even been in the conversation when we’re going through a pandemic? We wanted to dig a bit deeper and see if there was any research published on such a topic. Sure enough, there already was.
We found that the U.S National Library of Medicine/National Institute of Health (NIH), World Health Organization (WHO), International Well Building Institute, World Economic Forum (WEF), plus a bunch of other notable organizations had this topic already top of mind when COVID-19 hit last year in 2020. The verdict, it mattered. It actually mattered more than ever. And in a sense, it was almost like the planet was trying to make a plea for itself. For the first time in human history, it’s as though the world stopped. Almost the entire world was under lockdown - the images you saw across the globe in the most populous cities were like a movie - ghost towns. Was this helping our planet? Was it doing any good? Does sustainability still matter since we’re just all trying to stay alive and be healthy?
National Institute of Health (NIH) came out with a researched based article on Sustainable Development and its Role in Containing Crises. The basis of the article was global crisis and sustainability go hand in hand. And as we mentioned before in our article of Sustainable Development, which looks at sustainability as a whole society - economic viability, environmental protection and social equity - sustainability was a big factor in this. Especially looking at it in a bigger sense i.e sustainable development, rather than just the term sustainability. There’s a difference.
SOURCE: NIH, Sustainable development and It’s role in containing crises, Figure 1
The preface of the article gave a viewpoint, in summary, that crises like this i.e COVID-19 and other diseases expand the gap of income disparities. Therefore, impacting the growth of these categories as a society.
World Health Organization’s article, COVID-19 and Sustainable Development Goals, wrote a very similar viewpoint. Stating that “the pandemic has shown that this crisis is fuelled by poverty, hunger, weak health systems and lack of clean water and sanitation, education and global cooperation… COVID-19 response is alarming and has made researchers question whether the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are fit for the post-pandemic age. Some have even claimed that certain SDG targets might be counter-productive because they enhance growth rather than development.” Bottom line was in their last statement right there. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) needed to be re-evaluated as it’s more to enhance rather than be a development goals. Meaning developments that were already in place rather than infancy.
International Well Building Institute launched a whole rating system, WELL Health Safety Rating - in which we, Grooted, highly advocate - to help put into perspective that safe and healthy places matter more than ever. This is all a part of sustainable development.
You may be asking, how can that matter with the topic of sustainability? Remember we are looking at it from a sustainable development standpoint - the big picture. Our goal as wellness developers and consultants is to provide health and wellness in spaces that impact our planet and we, the people. Without having a sustainable world, without helping our planet which provides us to us all our human essentials, we cannot live - we will not exist.