The MIT Sloan Management Review, along with the Boston Consulting Group, recently released “The Business of Sustainability,” a comprehensive look at how this growing concern is impacting businesses. While 92 percent of businesses contacted for the report said they were addressing sustainability in some way, the majority were only doing the minimum, i.e., meeting regulatory requirements.
How committed is your company to sustainability? According to the report, companies committed to sustainable practices have done the following:
- 1. Clearly defined sustainability and understand its implications for business.
- 2. Conducted a thorough assessment of what drives sustainability; figured out which of those drivers presents the biggest opportunities and risks for your business.
- 3. Started acting on their sustainability analysis.
- 4.Developed a short-term (one to three years) business case for sustainability efforts.
- 5. Developed a model for long-term (four years and beyond) sustainability.
- 6. Established targets for sustainability efforts and methods for tracking and reporting results.
- 7. Senior management has begun focusing on sustainability strategies and has clearly delegated responsibilities in this area.
- 8. Integrated sustainability plans with company operations, processes and culture.
- 9. Made stakeholders aware of and active in sustainability agenda.
- 10. Put tools in place to effectively carry out sustainability strategy.
The report also identifies four levels of commitment to the 10 statements above, level one showing no commitment to sustainable practices, up to level four, which has sustainability totally integrated into the corporate structure. The takeaway from this? A commitment to sustainability is real work and takes more than using the word in a few press releases.
Image courtesy of Flickr user aussiegall, CC 2.0
