Page 74 - UDYAMA FINAL final for web

Green Recovery for the

Global Pandemic

Sustainability Management Perspective and COVID 19 Crisis

coronavirus (COVID 19) are all
linked with human activities.
According to the United Nations
Environment Programme (UN-
EP), the main drivers of zoonotic
diseases can be identified as
changes in the environment,
usually the result of human activi-
Mr. Chandimal Ranathunga Ms. Dimuthu Vijerathne ties, ranging from land-use ch-
Lecturer Sustainability Consultant
Faculty of Management Studies Faculty of Management Studies ange to changing climate, chang-
Sabaragamuwa University of Sabaragamuwa University of es in animals or human hosts,
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka environmental changes such as
modifying wildlife population
The world has been achieved a economic, environmental, and structure, deforestation red- ucing
significant growth in the aspect of social which are also named as biodiversity (Kappelle, 2020).
economics in recent decades mai- profits, planet, and people. Even Even though it is difficult to
nly with industrialization. Acco- though public health is not direct- predict that when the next out-
rdingly, an increasing impact on ly identified as a pillar of sustaina- break will come, growing evi-
the environment has been made bility, it can be considered as part dences emphasized that the
by human activities and environ- of social sustainability. Moreover, epidemic diseases may become
mental concern has become a a direct linkage between sustaina- more frequent due to climate cha-
globally emerged trend in the ble development and human nge. Therefore, it can be conclud-
world even prior to the COVID 19 health can be seen, when consid- ed that deviating from the sustain-
pandemic. The concept of sustain- ering the past events and existing ability path makes the public
ability emerged with that concern frameworks (Anastas, 2013). health emergency of international
and the general and widely using Further, the World Health Organi- concern such as COVID 19.
definition of sustainability is “me- zation (WHO) clarifies that the
eting the needs of the present wit- health perspective on sustainable Pandemic has been hugely affect-
hout compromising the ability of development as human health ing the economic growth and the
future generations to meet their cannot be maintained without entire world is gearing up for an
needs (Hakovirta & Denuwara, ecologically sustainable develop- extended and difficult recession
2020). In the year 2015, the Uni- ment which can be further mainly due to lockdown.
ted Nations (UN) set out 17 Sus- described as both social (as in
tainability Development Goals social capital) and physical (as in Many businesses have been fall-
(SDGs) addressing the challen- natural capital) dimensions ing due to this reason and it is
ges of the world and the people in (Schirnding & Mulholland, 2002). predicted that 40% out of them
it face, on a daily basis with the will not be reopened after the rec-
purpose of achieving a better and Further, Zoonoses which are overy. But, there is a fairly adv-
more sustainable future for all of recently emerged or re-emerged, anced trend of steering the busi-
us. such as Ebola, bird flu, Middle ness processes toward digital tra-
East respiratory syndrome nsformation options and also em-
Sustainability is mainly com- (MERS), sudden acute respirato- bracing the technologically as-
prised with three pillars named ry syndrome (SARS) and also sisted on-demand workforce arc-

72 January 2021