People now expect businesses to uphold high ethical values and make significant contributions to a sustainable future.
The challenge for business is to identify their key sustainability issues - climate change, labour issues in the supply chain, resource scarcity - and take steps to meaningfully address these issues to create opportunities around sustainable products and services.
Those businesses that fail to do this, or treat sustainability solely as a public relations exercise could ultimately risk their own licence to operate.
The businesses that engage with the sustainability agenda create opportunities for new markets, lower risks, greater efficiencies and increased loyalty from customers, employees and business partners alike.
People – your staff, your partners and your consumers – now judge your business on your values, as well as your value.
Increasing loyalty to ‘ethical’ brands and trust for companies that identify, address and communicate their social and environmental responsibilities is higher than ever with over 35% of people in the UK seeking out information on a company’s reputation in 2008* and punishing companies according to the perception of corporate values and ethical practice with 57% of UK citizens avoiding a product or service as a result of a poor corporate reputation*.
Your workforce take their values to the workplace every day and want their employer to attain high and visible standards of corporate behaviour. Your sustainability programme can lead to increased passion and drive from your people.
Most global companies already understand corporate sustainability and are looking down their supply chain, asking where the environmental and social risks are. Suppliers that can foresee these challenges can strengthen relationships and create opportunities with those companies already addressing these issues.
Corporate sustainability is no longer an option; it’s a necessary part of business that is good for your organisation, and good for society.
Posts
