<![CDATA[Sustainability Hub Norway - Blog - Andreas Friis]]>Sun, 09 Nov 2025 02:09:23 +0100Weebly<![CDATA[S-HUB 3 years and looking ahead]]>Fri, 17 Apr 2020 19:56:41 GMThttps://www.sustainabilityhub.no/andreasfriis_blog/s-hub-3-years-and-looking-ahead
On March 1st, S-HUB had our 3 year anniversary. We are very grateful towards everyone that has taken part in our journey and helped shape S-HUB over our first 3 years of existence, and we’re especially grateful towards our team, partners and members - we wouldn’t exist without you. 

We have established our identity as a corporate knowledge community for sustainable business, with a special focus on strategic and functional sustainability.  

With the Covid-19 situation, our activity levels are still very high - but we are going online for everything we do in the upcoming months - doing events over Zoom. 

From recent roundtable conversations in our CFO Sustainability Network, it is clear that sustainability as a strategic priority and having a sustainable business model will be even more important going forward. So even though Covid-19 might be a temporary setback for some companies, we urge you all to look to the horizon and see what is coming after this. 

For S-HUB, we find our role as a knowledge community for companies and leaders with strategic sustainability ambitions even more important than ever before. We are therefore very optimistic towards the future, and are looking forward to more collaboration with you all going forward. .
]]><![CDATA[I verdens rikeste land - et juledikt]]>Mon, 23 Dec 2019 08:12:48 GMThttps://www.sustainabilityhub.no/andreasfriis_blog/i-verdens-rikeste-land-et-julediktHer er en liten julehilsen på rim - resirkulert fra julen for to år siden.
God jul til alle gode venner og samarbeidspartnere - takk for et supert år. Vi ønsker dere alle et knakende godt 2020, og ser fram til det nye året! 
I verdens rikeste land

Vi bor i et land hvor vi har det sykt bra
Stresser før jul hver eneste da’
For å komme i mål både på jobb og hjemme
Men det er noen ting vi ikke skal glemme

Å være leder i verdens rikeste land
betyr det forventes mer, det er mer som går an
det er ditt ansvar å tørre og drømme
framtidas generasjoner er de som skal dømme...

..spørre - gjorde vi nok? med de mulighetene vi hadde
eller hadde vi MOT som en tannlaus padde
Har du gjort nok dette året slik du virkelig kan
Gått foran tatt lederskap rekt opp din hand

For oss er det viktig å mobilisere bredt
blant bedrifter og ledere med sunt folkevett
med langsiktig innsikt og bærekraftsambisjon
profitt og bedre verden i samme visjon

Vår plattform er samarbeid og lære av hverandre
hvis det er noe i samfunnet vi vil forandre
å lede handler om å endre ting til det bedre
la oss sammen ta tak som våre grunnlovsfedre

da gjenstår det bare med brask og bram
å ønske god jul med mitt festtelegram
og ikke minst et riktig godt kommende år
la oss prates mer over en kaffetår

Tekst: Andreas Friis (2017)
]]><![CDATA[The State of Sustainable Business 2019 - Globally & Locally]]>Sun, 08 Dec 2019 12:36:26 GMThttps://www.sustainabilityhub.no/andreasfriis_blog/the-state-of-sustainable-business-2019-globally-locallyBy Andreas Friis, Executive Director, S-HUB (andreas@sustainabilityhub.no)

2019 is soon over, but will go into history as the year where sustainability really became mainstream and a core strategic priority for a large number of companies - fueled especially by global finance and investor expectations worldwide. There has been a 30% increase in sustainable investing in the latest 2 years, now totalling over $30 trillion worldwide or 25% of all assets under management.   

Full buy-in from investors, owners and top level management
97% of investors now say they take non-financial information into consideration when making their investment decisions - an increase of almost 50% in just 3 years - with many indications that sustainability investments clearly outperform their traditional counterparts. 
Sustainability is moving from “nice to have” to “need to do”.
One massive sign of this is the August redefinition of The US Business Roundtable’s landmark “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation”. The focus is not anymore just to serve shareholders, but “to create value for all stakeholders.” More than 200 CEOs led by JP Morgan Chase Chairman Jamie Dimon have signed on. 

Status in Norway
In Norway, we see similar trends through our annual S-HUB “State of Sustainability Norway 2019”-survey. 77% of the 173 respondents in this survey say that they have sustainability strategies in place, whereas 72% report on sustainability. At the same time, 80% want to have better frameworks when it comes to measuring and reporting on sustainability impact. There is also a lack of maturity and competence in practice in this space, where 75% of the companies have worked with sustainability for less than 6 years, and the people responsible for these topics in the companies are usually recruited internally, with no sustainability experience nor education to lean on. 

Implications
What are the deep implications of all of this? 
  • Sustainability should be a clear strategic priority, integrated into all business aspects. 
  • Boards and top management need to take responsibility for the sustainability agenda
  • Companies should focus on topics material to their business and industry, where they also can maximize sustainability impact and overall value for society
  • Investment decisions, KPIs, measurement and reporting need to be fueled by better sustainability data - and integrated reporting frameworks should be considered 
  • The lack of maturity, competence and knowledge in this space need to be addressed seriously and met with a plan to upgrade knowledge all throughout the organization

Sources: 
- S-HUB State of Sustainability Norway 2019-report 
- Global Sustainable Investment Alliance / USSIF
- McKinsey 2019 - More than values: The value-based sustainability reporting that investors want
- EY 2018 - Does your nonfinancial reporting tell your value creation story?

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