The Competence Management is one of the most publicized issues within the areas of human resource management in companies; The environmental issue, for its part, has also been gaining ground in quality management systems and transcends the normative spaces of legislative requirements, addressing business culture as an expression of interest in the urgency of making environmental issues a matter of concern. beyond fashion. The footprint, left by companies in their environmental context, is also a responsibility of the people who participate in it.
The Business Environmental Competencies will, in a short time, be a necessary model aimed at identifying the behaviors that companies need so that their collaborators become allies in the great quest for "sustainable development" and to ensure a vital space for generations that they have not arrived yet.
The Human Management areas will be the ones that will allow the company to identify the Business Environmental Competencies required so that performance, productivity and competitiveness are aligned with the possibility of a new rationality that is not divided or absent from the totality as an alternative.
The environmental includes the attitude of people and transcends the business level. International regulations, aimed at promoting cleaner and less polluting production in companies, must now be supported by the development of Business Environmental Competenciesthat promote behaviors that go beyond the minimum behaviors of respect for the environment, it is about building business cultures that include among their traditions the need to promote the maintenance of healthy environmental conditions for current and future employees. Business environmental competence is identified, among others, with the need to be sensitive to the use given to water resources, for example, to become aware that air quality is also our problem, energy consumption, respect for the natural resources present in the management, the implementation of strategies that make effective the task of the R (Recycle, Reuse and Reduce), among other alternatives of action evaluable in the actions of people in companies.
It is intended then that the environment is translated into a common effort and not in compliance with rules that are forgotten as soon as we leave our business roll. The Competencies Environmental Business, as a differentiating axis management practice is just beginning its transition to practical models to evaluate each employee the current status of these powers against processes such as recruitment, training and performance.
The characterization of these competencies will have as an understanding guide the answer to three questions that will guide us to demonstrate the behavior of environmentally competent people:
1. How MUST a person BE to be able to affirm that they are environmentally competent?
a) Conceptually structured and with criteria to evaluate the environmental situations that surround it.
b) Open to debate for the construction of knowledge on the environmental issue.
c) Aware of their acts related to the environment and their care.
d) It is recognized as a member of an interdependent, systemic society with a vital historical context.
e) Aware of the current situation in which the environment that integrates the natural, the social and the business is found.
f) Proactive and proposing effective actions to protect or minimize the impacts caused by business management on the environment.
g) Responsible for his actions and aware of the impact that his actions have in the environmental context in which he lives.
h) It is self-regulating and self-managing in the use and management of the resources that come into its hands.
i) It works in the long term and develops a real and measurable action plan for the promotion of a healthy and sustainable environment.
j) Committed to life, with a broad environmental sense, perseverance and care for the resources that surround him.
2. What MUST YOU KNOW to be able to claim that you are environmentally competent?
a) Know the main aspects related to national environmental regulations.
b) That he is a fragile being, that he requires a healthy environment and that the optimal state of this environment depends on him.
c) Find out about news and developments in national and international policies and regulations on environmental issues.
d) He knows what environment is and recognizes the importance it has for the company where he works.
e) How to transmit information, persuade and mobilize people in favor of the environment.
f) Use support networks for the benefit of nature and its environmental context
g) Real knowledge of the environment and business culture
h) It must be updated in news related to the environment in order to develop critical thinking about the indiscriminate use of the ecosystem and logically modify behavior and consumption habits.
i) Have knowledge of the laws and legal norms in force that seek to protect the use of natural resources to abide by and comply with them.
j) Recognize the impact that their actions have on the conservation of the environmental conditions in which they live.
3. What MUST a person DO to be able to affirm that he is competent from the environment?
a) Share good environmental practices in their workplace and in their daily lives. Take care of your immediate environment, the closest.
b) Training in environmental care culture
c) Develop activities aimed at caring for the environment around you.
d) Set an example for coworkers through their environmentally friendly actions.
e) Be aware of the environmental impact generated by your company and propose solutions to eliminate, reduce or minimize its impact.
f) Know how to identify, evaluate and prevent or mitigate environmental risks
g) Disseminate within the company the good environmental practices required to contribute to the sustainability of the company.
h) Set an example through your actions and be consistent between what you think and what you do.
i) Be involved and be an active member in educational activities and programs that help mitigate the ecological damage identified in their environment.
j) Investigate, propose and promote new procedures and processes in a way that reduces the consumption of energy resources.
To consolidate this characterization of what an environmentally competent person should be, know and do, it is also necessary to consider the importance of the historical and business context in which the competition develops, since it is the management scenarios that will determine if one or the other behaviors are privileged, in such a way that it is important to understand that the BUSINESS CULTURE includes the environmental as part of the corporate identity.
It is significant to recognize the relationship that exists between the person, as a generator of culture by establishing interpersonal ties, the work team as a result of recognizing the contribution of others to business management and the company as an entity that assumes a responsible position or not against the requirements of state and government legislation, including compliance with environmental regulations.
The concern to build sustainable organizations in the economic, social and environmental aspects has led to the consolidation of initiatives in the international arena that allow companies to be convened around approved criteria and agreements and which become market benchmarks for both organizations as for nations, this is how we find, for example, the ISO series (it is International Organization for Standardization) that has managed to position and strengthen some standards that support and promote, not only quality certification, but has managed to have sufficient credibility to propose many other standards that point to business competitiveness, such as: ISO 14001 on environmental management, ISO 26000 on social responsibility, ISO 50001 on energy management, among others.
Another entity that is gaining more and more positioning as a benchmark and to which new companies subscribe every day is the so-called GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) report that promotes the business sustainability report in the economic, environmental and social dimensions. In Colombia, since 2009 some companies have presented their first report. Recently, the G3 came out, which contains the methodological aspects to present said report and which becomes certifiable from its presentation.
Finally, it is important to recognize that the implementation of the Environmental Business Competencies has several identifiable purposes in terms of results for organizations, I specifically mean that a company, with environmentally competent people, recognizes that performance in the execution of the various tasks and in the different positions, he contributes to the generation of production processes and establishes indicators of a superior and differentiating result that consolidates the company as a model to follow, in such a way that its market value increases not only in economic terms but also in relationship with the practices it carries out and which make it a competitive benchmark.
* This document is inspired and collects information from the work presented by the author in his text Business environmental competences: definition, characterization and application.
