Introduction to Sustainability

Sustainability is a very broad term used to describe actions, initiatives and programs that are
directed towards protection of various resources. It basically implies serving the needs of
today without hampering the future generation’s ability to satisfy their needs. it’s a long-term
vision. There are 4 pillars of sustainability namely.
 Human sustainability- it focuses on development and improvement of human resource
of the society.
 Social sustainability- it’s major focus is on improving the society and social capital,
making the world a good place to live.
 Economic sustainability- on one hand where social sustainability works on improving
the society this form of sustainability works on improving the standard of living of
people. it focuses on efficient use of business assets.
 Environmental sustainability- as the name suggest the focus here is to look after the
natural resources like land, air, water etc.
Reasons why social sustainability is necessary in India
India is still a developing country and hence developing and working on social sustainability
is very important. Poverty is still an issue in major parts of the world as around 3 billion
people still survives in less than $2.5 a day and around 1 billion children around the world
face poverty. More than 1 billion people don’t have access to clean water or proper shelter.
These stats are a clear indicator for giving importance to social sustainability. India is moving
towards social sustainability as the poverty rates are continuously decreasing which is a good
sign for the country.
Social Entrepreneurs
There are way too many problems and is not possible for the government to solve everything
hence, making it important for the private players to come up. This is exactly where the term
social entrepreneurs come into play. These are the people who have the sense of social
responsibility in them and believes in solving the societal problems of the world. Where
people identify only the problems these people try to look of the alternative resources and
solutions to the problems.
Charity- NGO- Social entrepreneurship
 Charity is a way to satisfy one time need of someone by the means of temporary
donation to a person with some need or desire.
 NGOs exist to deal with the social problems and provide training and teachings to
improve the life of a person.
 Social entrepreneurship is a concept where individual, group or organization develops
and provide funds for social causes like helping individual in setting up its business
etc.
Frugal Innovation
It becomes extremely difficult for the organizations to follow both economic and social
sustainability as either they can go for profit orientation or nonprofit oriented. This led to the
orientation of the term Frugal Innovation which makes the organization keep a healthy
balance between both social and economic sustainability. Frugal innovation is basically
creating something new from the already available resources.
Some examples of Frugal innovation
 Hippo roller (south Africa)- it’s a device made to help people carry water to a distance
in much easier way than traditional method of carrying on head.
 Social ability- they work with the disabled people and help them develop other senses
so that they live a normal life.
Work integration social enterprises – these are some organizations which helps in
improving the employment chances of people who are away from the labor market.
Examples
Street Australia
Digital device data
Arvind eyecare system

Shared channel and Innovative partnership:

some of the other ways in which the organisation can achieve social and commercial
sustainability.
Example - Kit Yamoy – UK, Grameen Dannone, Information Intermediaries