Production System after the Covid 19 and the effects on sustainability

Abstract

The purposes of this round table speech in the 9th International Conference on BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY 2020, were to identify the impact of COVID-19 on Sustainability of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and Large Companies (LCN) to act in the international market and in each national market. If, on the one hand, companies are today in emergency, responding to constant changes market, production and legal issues that result of the pandemic, it is also true that within organizations is still not clear who is the owner in the area of Sustainability. Companies predict that Sustainability is a competitive factor in aftermath of COVID-19. Will they be prepared? It is essential to understand how this awareness will work inside companies in relation to Sustainability before- from the COVID-19 context. Companies were already facing big challenges. The pandemic has only intensified them and made them even more pressing. The ability to meet today's needs without compromising ability of future generations to also satisfy their own needs has become the main approach of the business sector, in the face of uncertainty with which they are faced today. So, the legal environmental in their social and economic dimensions must be considered unanimously, creating the certainty that lasting prosperity. COVID-19 made latent the need for a change of approach in the way we act on the planet and with each other, making it urgent and essential an adaptation of what, henceforth, it’s called the "new real". The debate explored strategic domains such as the decarbonization of society and the promoting the energy transition, the circularity of economy and the reduction of risks and appreciation of assets environmental. These domains are based on dimensions that allow enterprises to increase resilience in combat to climate change, improvements in the quality of environment and security in the sustainable use of resources. Once the restructuring and recovery phase is still underway, it is still unclear what main measures will be taken by companies in the context of COVID-19. However, more and more companies already point to activities such as increasing the focus on Sustainability in its products and services, as well as the promotion of waste reduction. COVID-19 has accelerated the transition to a new way of thinking about economic growth (GDP) that still was not part of the agenda of most companies. In this context, the role of smart growth has become even more urgent and essential. Under these circumstances, we add the unique opportunity of investment, in a long run perspective, provided by the incentives for economic events, the conditions for a turning point that marks a true change in the growth paradigm. It is therefore essential to realign investment in innovation and sustainability with the aim of smart growth. That should be the priority of priorities.