There is now a global climate emergency, yet private sector investment in adaptation remains low, said Saber Hossain Chowdhury.
The chairman of the standing committee on the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the National Parliament also said that the objectives of the private sector are broadly threefold. They seek to reduce production costs, increase revenue, and maximize profit margins.
He was speaking at a dialogue on “Sustainability Reporting by the Private Sector in Bangladesh: Expectations and Experience” organized by the Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh in the capital on Saturday.
“This is the common character of the private sector worldwide. There is now a global climate emergency, yet private sector investment in adaptation remains low,” he added.
So, it is wrong to think that the country's private sector will swiftly jump on sustainability issues.
The rationale for sustainability reporting should be highlighted. Businesses need to be motivated as to why they should do sustainability reporting,
“That's why they need to be motivated here, explain what the business case is here. Longevity can be a big motivation for the private sector. A company needs to be motivated to survive long-term,” he added.
Moreover, the case studies of sustainability reporting should also be brought forward. If issues like how a company has profited and how much it has profited can be brought forward, it will act as a motivation for the business.
Citing the example of garments, he said that the manufacturer receives only 15%-20% of the cost of a brand's garment.
“At such a low price, it is often not possible to pay attention to sustainability. So, we have to pay attention here for the fair price,” he added, saying that policies should be brought forward and everyone should be made aware.
There is a conflict between profit and social responsibility that needs to be resolved. Sustainability can be easily adopted if the profit level can be increased, he added.
The issue of sustainability should be started with the micro-level enterprises and taken to the multinational.
“Every budget we have has a theme, sustainability may be a theme in the next budgets,” he added.
In the constitution, there are articles to preserve the environment, for the present and future citizens, which is the essence of sustainability.
“We should use our current resources in such a way that future generations' rights to these resources are not compromised,” he added, saying that Bangladesh is still in a linear economy; but needs to move towards a circular economy.
He also urged to make sustainability a culture and everyone - public and private – should come forward to implement it.
In her speech, BGMEA Director Vidiya Amrit Khan said that as the first association, the BGMEA has been reporting sustainability since 2020 based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
“We are preparing the sector based on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) data disclosure. We have also signed a pact with MiB,” she added.
The European Union (EU) recently addressed the ‘Due Diligence' resolution which impacts the sector. If the sector doesn't abide by the ESG, then the buyer may not source from them.
“For this reason, the collection of sustainability data has become mandatory and we are moving towards them. We are doing sustainability reporting by overcoming various challenges,” she added.
CEO of Unilever Bangladesh Zaved Akhter said that they have been doing sustainability reporting since 2010 and Unilever Bangladesh published their first report in 2021.
“Organizations have to pivot, profit with purpose. Organizations need to be philosophically shifted. The brands rooted with sustainability grow 50% faster,” he added.
Shams Mahmud, managing director of Shasha Denims, said that the government can play a huge role in this regard.
“There are energy and other crises that should be resolved,” he added. Consumer behaviour is also important in sustainability reporting, he further said.
Fazlul Hoque, managing director of Plummy Fashion Ltd, said that the intermediary of the market is dominating everything.
Towfiq Islam Khan, senior research fellow of the CPD presented the keynote at the event.
In his keynote, he said that in Bangladesh, there have been limited efforts to collate the sustainability reports prepared by the private sector because of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and review them under a single framework.
He also said that ensuring a harmonized framework, alignment with international standards, maintaining quality reporting, and incentivizing the private sector through policy interface can help the private sector in sustainability reporting.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) moderated the event and said that sustainability reporting is significant in the process of LDC graduation and SDG.
“We should include a strategy paper in the LDC. Otherwise, we can't achieve northern values. We also should focus on relational data. Still, there is a lack of awareness in preparing sustainability reports,” he added.
Around 33 experts from Bangladesh Bank, universities, IUCN, corporates, UNDP, NGOs, and media also spoke at the event.
