Whatever stage your company is in with regards to environmental sustainability, you may be deliberating on the optimal next step in your journey. Simple research and conversations are likely to uncover a dozen different directions your company could go, each with varying levels of success and cost. To truly identify the most advantageous route, there are two main factors to consider to maximize positive effects and minimize corporate risk and costs. The first is top-of-mind consumer sustainability proxies, or how your end consumer defines environmental sustainability for your industry and product. Next, consider what is the level of changes to your current business model that your company can absorb. Combined, these two factors should point to the short list of potential action items for your company. Sustainability proxies Depending on the industry, “sustainability” can have different meanings for your consumers. For consumer goods, automotive, and home construction industries, consumers indicated that a long lifespan or high durability of a product is a strong indicator of environmental sustainability. These industries may also want to look at recycling and reusability potential as well as the environmental impact of packaging. But these indicators change quickly when looking at energy and utilities. The same consumers are scrutinizing the source and production of raw materials to signal sustainability, followed by emission rates and whether the company offsets emissions via carbon permits or other methods. How closely your company‘s actions resonate with the consumer‘s mental sustainability proxy drives the potency of the pull incentive (e.g. increased consumer appeal) for pursuing a more sustainable value proposition. This more potent pull incentive offsets the investment considerations, making future next steps more practically conceivable.
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11 Environmental sustainability in business
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