Sustainability In the 2020s

In this article, we’ll explore what a sustainability mindset can do for your business – from reducing costs to increasing sales; from enabling innovation to acting as a conduit for your organisation’s purpose. With less than ten years to 2030 (our collective sunset date for the UN Sustainable Development Goals), it’s time to get on board.

Energy reductions, anyone?

Take a look around your organisation. Do you see opportunities for reducing waste and energy usage beyond the usual efforts? If you answered yes, how would you go about it? Would your co-workers see energy reduction as an individual’s responsibility? Does your workplace have the capacity to introduce individual ‘energy reduction’ targets and financial incentives? By working with a professional sustainability provider, you will be advised whether this concept - and others - are a good fit for your organisational culture. Equally, a provider can help sound out whether alternate sustainability initiatives are more meaningful to your people, via depth interviews, focus groups and surveys.

Perhaps your co-workers’ preferred currency is not cash, but trust, and they’d prefer to work from home two days a week to cut down on office costs and travel time. If this sounds like your company and the culture is right, get thee to a sustainability expert and start calculating your energy savings! A little-known fact amongst corporates is that flexible work arrangements have a ‘triple bottom line’ effect. That is to say, working from home can improve employee wellbeing; reduce carbon emissions and office costs; and strengthen local economies through suburban place-making.

Sustainability as a revenue driver

Sustainable brands = premium brands = higher price perception = higher revenues. Enough said.

The innovation catalyst

Some organisations see innovation as a subset of sustainability, and others see sustainability as a subset of innovation. Regardless of whether you empower your product team to pursue sustainable design, or your sustainability team to pursue innovation, by mixing the two teams together and intentionally colliding ideas, companies can yield game-changing results. If you work closely with a professional sustainability provider, request a knowledge session on sustainable innovation – and don’t forget to invite multiple teams!

FMCG brands are advised to pay particular heed to the increasing number of conscious consumers who think nothing of trading ‘convenience’ for low waste and plastic-free alternatives. New market players such as Loop (who package and deliver groceries in recyclable stainless steel canisters) are fast changing the game, disrupting FMCG brands’ plastics paradigm. With Loop continuing to attract sustainably-minded consumers, the world is entering a ‘new normal’ level of conscious consumerism. Brave is the brand that flouts this trend! Your sustainability provider should understand the strategic implications of this change and implement a plan to help your organisation adapt.

No purpose, no play

In today’s world, organisations with no stated purpose are consigning themselves to antiquity. Recent research shows that purpose-driven companies tend to outperform companies that have none. And with Millennials now making up the majority of the world’s workforce, it pays to have a purpose statement that is more than just a tagline to appeal to this influential generation. To read authentically, purpose statements should incorporate sustainability or social impact principles. Likewise, it’s important to ensure a purpose statement is long enough to convey to stakeholders what the organisation stands for and what social impacts the organisation aims to achieve. If your organisation’s purpose statement can’t disclose the above, go back to the drawing board and start again. Start the work today to reap the benefits this decade. 

By taking on the services of a professional sustainability provider, you can equip your team with best practice knowledge and relevant sustainability frameworks. An experienced provider will also show your organisation how to set the scene for a distributed team of sustainability change agents to flourish, providing all the support your people need to fulfil their sustainability responsibilities.