A future where People and Planet are just as crucial as Profits

BUSINESSES globally are recalibrating their strategies to include new and rapidly evolving sustainability principles. Such principles are broader than just a commitment to minimise their impact on the environment: they encompass everything from sound ethics and governance to workplace diversity, community engagement and societal concerns such as fairness and equality.

Until recently, these issues were often seen as secondary, if not irrelevant, to the primary aim of maximising profit. It took a paradigm shift of outlook 30 years ago, driven by fears about climate change and holes in the ozone layer, to underscore the need to include "people" and "planet" on the bottom line, as well as profit.

This isn't news, but at a time when political sentiment in many countries is regressing towards short-term parochialism, it is worth re-emphasising. As a bank marking its 200-year anniversary, we see it as crucial that our clients in the Asia-Pacific join us in our bid to act sustainably for the next 200 years and beyond. Doing so is not just a moral imperative, it's increasingly a business one.