Energy investments in renewable energy sources as a way towards enterprises’ sustainable development

Stanisław Staszic State University of Applied Sciences in Pila, 64920 Pila, Poland

^* Corresponding author: gposzwa@gmail.com

Abstract

Sustainable development is a pervasive philosophy that every participant in the global economy (including consumers and government) must agree with if today’s needs are to be met without risking the ability of future generations to meet their own. According to this premise, the idea of sustainable development cannot be implemented by a single enterprise (or even the entire business community) in isolation. In their activities, business entities wanting to apply the philosophy of the balanced use of all resources necessary in the production process should take into account the assumptions included in the seventeen priority goals of sustainable development in the decision-making process. This article shows how enterprises can both achieve business goals and focus on environmental protection through the implementation of energy investments. However, it also shows that the mere awareness of the need to implement energy investments in their organizations is not sufficient to achieve these goals, and the level of investments in this respect among small and medium-sized enterprises is moderate.