The Sustainability Imperative

This issue of Amplify explores how businesses and public entities can manage investments in the circular economy in light of complex concerns that overlap many dimensions of social, technological, environmental, and economic systems.

Through a systematic literature review, Lihua Sun and Zhuowen Chen present a broad perspective of CE investment. Their review reveals six key aspects of CE investments: government, financial institutions and instruments, cooperation and collaboration, corporate governance, technology, and assessment tools.

In this Advisor, Sara Cook of the Wildlife Habitat Council offers imperatives for aligning corporate ambitions with place-based action that is both stakeholder-informed and fully resourced.

Proactive measurement and management of consumer product impacts can minimize the risks of running afoul of social expectations and enable analysis and decision-making alongside financial metrics by translating those impacts into units of currency we call “monetary impact accounts.” This Advisor takes a closer look at this new way of capturing a more complete view of corporate ESG activities.

How a company handles environmental concerns — or crises — is central to what it stands for, and it’s becoming increasingly divisive. Not surprisingly, it seems every major country is focused on how environmental information should be disclosed to stakeholders, with a focus on climate-related information. For many years, companies have been presented with a patchwork of conflicting rules and requirements, making it hard to compare them, even within an industry. Executives and boards have been calling for the multiple prevailing standard-setters to not only consolidate but to do so on a global scale. This Advisor examines the landscape of climate-related information disclosure.

Cutter Expert Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx and Marco Schletz dive deep into the field of ReFi, a concept that enhances financial practices through decentralization and focuses on environmental and societal systems. The authors highlight several key problems of the space and point out that genuinely disruptive ReFi models are still in their infancy. The good news is that ReFi’s potentials are manifold and exciting. In the not-too-distant future, we might see financial applications backed by blockchain that can enhance data credibility, exchangeability, and transparency to redefine how corporations create and apportion environmental value.

In this issue of Amplify, we delve into the intricate connections between blockchain technologies and sustainability, highlighting how transparency, traceability, and decentralization can empower individuals, organizations, and governments to address pressing sustainability issues, from energy grids and sustainable forestry to agri-food ecosystems and regenerative finance. As we explore this dynamic development, it becomes evident that blockchain is not merely a technological innovation: it can serve as a catalyst for transformative change that aligns with the global imperative to create a more sustainable and equitable world.

This article presents an interview with Michael Marus, conducted by Cutter Expert Curt Hall and Guest Editor Horst Treiblmaier. Marus is CIO and director of IT at the Forest Stewardship Council, an organization governed by a global network of more than 1,000 individuals and member organizations with the mission to protect forests worldwide. It has been testing and applying blockchain since 2021 to enable sustainability with forest-based materials and has found that blockchain’s traceability helps it achieve integrity and credibility for its certification system. Marus provides exciting details about the organization’s practical experiences and offers his outlook on how blockchain might provide further value in the future.