In the run-up to the important meeting that will happen soon in Copenhagen in December, I want to address the growing importance of sustainability, to propose a framework to help companies and government in the sustainability discussion and agenda, and finally, to reinforce the importance of implementation of what was discussed. Unfortunately, in this area there is too much speech, and not too much action, in Governments and companies.

Sustainability, previously defined as "responsible use of exhaustible energy resources and raw materials" has gotten a huge increase in awareness over the world. The facts for this arousal of awareness could be justified by the rise in expectations of consumers (more aware of problems), the emergence of new generations more worried with planet conditions, having a common sense to keep the planet), the scarcity of natural resources on the planet for all its population, global warming risks, bringing floods and hunger due to lost agricultural areas, and the impact of communications via internet, which allows immediate knowledge of disasters, bad behavior of companies, excess pollution and others.

At a company level, there is a growing concern that they have to reduce the impact of their activities on the environment, to increase transparency (corporate social responsibility) to promote a better flow of information, to promote more inclusion and less social imbalance and finally, to increase the company's usage of natural and renewable resources/energy.

Sustainability has three traditional major pillars where it is needed to promote development. The economic dimension (profit), the environment dimension (planet) and the social dimension (people). I am adding a fourth "P": pro-activeness.

On the economic (profit) side, the major factors to be considered are how companies, networks and productive chains are dealing with margins, profit, compensation, losses on the chain, communication issue for final consumers, improving credit conditions with benefits to sustainable projects, risk management (knowledge of financial market and financial instruments), information technology (information access; reduce transaction costs) and overall strategies to reduce costs and achieve economic sustainability of the business. Without economic sustainability, any other request is impossible, since companies cannot pay for it, if they don't have margins. This is a first and important step. A company must be economically sustainable.

On the environment side (planet), the major factors to be considered are the impact of the company on the environment, impact of the company's integrated suppliers, impact of transports (food miles), packaging (trying always to recycle/reuse/rebuilt – using new materials and less materials), waste management (generating less waste; separating and recycling; generating energy/fertilizers from waste), use of energy, emissions, water management (company view of usage, protecting water,management, and spreading best practices), more digital and less paper, reuse of materials, green and environmentally oriented buildings and facilities, carbon emissions/neutralization (carbon footprint), among others. Consumers also have a incredible task here, changing habits and having a more responsible consumption behavior.

On the social (people) side, the major factors to be considered are the working conditions for its employees, conditions also of the company's suppliers and distributors, the health and safety, usage of child labor, working climate, safety equipments, to promote actions for local community, to incentive cooperation, to have small holder friendly initiatives, try to do technology transfer for smallholders, improving local companies capacity and promote on the product line always benefits for consumers, being, for instance, more nutritional, more worried with health concerns and others.

Finally, a company must be proactive. Not only speak about sustainability, but to act. This involves building a code of conduct, to follow codes of industries associations, from Governments, to have awareness, to have a budget for sustainability, to initiate immediately steps to reduce environmental impacts, to monitor constantly the activities, to document, to have committees and boards and exchange of information and knowledge.

A planet that is imbalanced will not be sustainable in the long term. It is our responsibility to promote better conditions for future generations to live in a planet with more equilibrium. The agenda is here. History books will remember our generation as the one that took the actions, that made the difference, and helped planet to survive and to get better, or the opposite… We will be remembered as the ones that did not promote the changes that were needed. Or even worst, in a catastrophic scenario, we will no more have history books or people to read them.

The author is professor of strategic planning and food chains at the School of Economics and Business, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (www.favaneves.org).