Corporate Sustainability and eLearning: distance training for a sustainable company

If Corporate Sustainability is the new key objective that guides the actions of every company, no area is excluded from the race to be more sustainable: in this article we will see how eLearning contributes to a great extent to Corporate Sustainability and how distance training can represent an opportunity for all organizations.

What is the Corporate Sustainability?

Corporate Sustainability is an «approach aiming to create long-term stakeholder value through the implementation of a business strategy that focuses on the ethical, social, environmental, cultural, and economic dimensions of doing business.» (Wikipedia). In other words, it is the implementation of a series of processes aimed at diminishing or modifying the impact of the organization, taking into consideration various aspects ranging from ecology to social commitment.

Sustainability reporting and compliance

For some time now, internationally, there has been talk of regulating sustainability by subjecting companies to targeted assessments and promoting continuous improvement initiatives in this regard. In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda, a program in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for sustainable social, economic and environmental development, a plan that involves not only the public sector, but also all private organizations that are asked to make their own active contribution. In 2019, then, the European Union sanctioned the Green Deal , for the achievement of climate neutrality by 2050.

If large companies have already taken several actions in recent years to align themselves with the new standards – also due to sustainability reporting being mandatory for listed companies and the large banking-insurance sector (European directive 2014/95/EU) – many of the SMEs or micro-companies have ignored the signs of interest in these issues, sometimes considering them distant or not applicable. However, since sustainability reporting also concerns the certification of the entire supply chain, the obligation could soon be extended to even the smallest organizations, forcing them to take action and draw up an action plan for compliance with Corporate Sustainability standard.

eLearning and sustainability

This is precisely the reason why eLearning comes into play: if all aspects of the company must be questioned to improve its sustainability, training also becomes an opportunity to make small but significant changes in the long term.
In particular, when we talk about sustainability and training it is essential to consider which sectors of the company this may affect: at a first analysis it becomes clear that this is a transversally important area, impacting on almost all the aspects involved in Corporate Sustainability.

Environmental impact

Someone may think that training has nothing to do with ecology, but it is exactly the opposite. If the diffusion of smart working and remote work has made it possible to reduce the environmental impact of companies, thanks to a significant decrease in commuting and consequently to a more intelligent organization of it (more use of public transport, choice of less pollutants, etc.), training presents itself as an opportunity to further promote this reduction, or on the contrary, cancel it. On the one hand, in fact, the choice of bringing employees – perhaps located in different cities – into a physical classroom requires large movements of people, sometimes completely separated from (and consequently in addition to) normal commuting. On the other hand, the choice of distance training methods – whether it is synchronous eLearning in the virtual classroom or asynchronous through self-learning contents – contributes to further reducing the environmental impact, enhancing the effects of smart working.

Economic impact

The reduction of the environmental impact falls directly on the economic impact. On the one hand, in fact, the choice of smart working and distance training allows savings in terms of costs associated with moving and renting the classrooms, but also greater optimization of investments, through the reuse of materials (the registrations of webinars that become lessons for asynchronous eLearning and can be distributed to infinite users, for example) and a considerable lengthening of the amortization plan for costs related to digital platforms and content development.
In addition, a company that invests in effective training and cultivates talents, taking care of updating or retraining collaborators, will have less turnover and less need to hire new ones, reducing the costs associated with recruiting.

Social and cultural impact

Last but certainly not least, it seems useless to reiterate how the social and cultural aspect of training has its weight in the company organization: the aforementioned “cultivation of talents” and favoring upskilling and reskilling, are certainly fundamental to make organizations more sustainable over time, not only by improving internal know-how and knowledge, but also and above all by creating value outside the company.

Sustainable companies in the near future

Therefore, it seems obvious that the issue of Corporate Sustainability is now decisive for all organizations and that distance training can be an ally of particular value in becoming compliant with the regulation and improving one’s scores in the sustainability reporting.
On the other hand, no company today can afford to ignore the importance of these issues or think that they do not concern it closely, but on the contrary all are called to give their contribution to the cause, however small, even before the law forces them to do so.

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