Sustainability as an Asset for your Company
Why should you include sustainability in your growth path? Is it a real asset for your company?
What is corporate sustainability and how has it changed over time?
The concept of sustainability had always been intrinsically connected to environmental safeguards.
Over the last few years, its meaning has experienced a deep evolution: the vision centered only on ecological aspects has given way to many others.
Today, the term sustainability not only embraces the environmental dimension, but also the ethical and social ones.
That is the reason why we have been hearing of ESG (Environmental Social and Governance): the term sustainability holds all those logics that rule over companies’ strategies and investments, in order to stimulate every group to act for a positive impact on both the environment and the society and to realise all those company governance forms inspired to ethical criteria.
Sustainability as a competitive asset for companies
Including sustainability in growth strategies is a real competitive advantage for every firm; furthermore, it may also turn itself into a regulatory requirement.
Be as it may, it must be considered in every company choice.
A business that elevates environmental sustainability as one of the main values of its company is considered more reliable, and less risky and it puts itself at an advantage over customers.
This vision is something that may produce assuring in the long run, and it is thus perceived as a great asset to the end user and clients.
It is essential to understand that, today, we have to change our behaviour and development models.
The enhancement of these themes has led many companies to include sustainability in their own business targets.
This transition is fundamental, but it requires a profound cultural and competence change in business practice.
ESG rating: what is it and why should a company consider it?
ESG rating or sustainability rating is an evaluation that certifies the solidity of a title or of a found, from the environmental, social, and governance point of view; it also considers how sustainability is perceived and sought-after.
It does not substitute traditional ratings, it only gives additional information to those who want to invest: the higher the ratings, the better the company.
Applied sustainability: obstacles and risks
Energy field topics have shifted the focus from sustainability to cost savings, because of the situation we are currently living in, and because of its supply. Anyway, even before these critical circumstances, there were some difficulties in real sustainable development.
First of all, companies were afraid they would be the first mover: they would take a different path according to the past, but other companies would not have followed them.
Secondly, a major obstacle is represented by investments: these may scare the entrepreneur and slow the adaptation process.
These are some of the reasons why companies usually wait to be obliged by a client or the market and why they do not quicken a sustainable programme.
Sustainability: risk or investment?
Sustainability is an investment and should not be perceived as a cost.
Sustainable companies are those that manage to create value; this means marketing a product that has acquired added value and therefore all the investments that have been made are then recovered from the value that can be created on the market.
Too often we make the mistake of seeing them as costs and therefore not perceiving the value that is being created.
If we look at the companies that have introduced these concepts into their business, we find that they have largely succeeded in recouping their investments.
Less greenwashing, more green marketing
Today, the attention of consumers on green themes is tremendously strong. At first, companies carried out marketing strategies strictly communication-oriented, which lacked any concrete foundation: that is greenwashing, a term that depicts the image of a green company that has done nothing in the field of sustainability.
This practice was once enormously common.
Luckily today, as the attention of the consumer is noticeably higher, those companies that intend to do green marketing must pay attention and support these strategies with concrete actions.
Whoever wants to carry out a precise communication strategy must begin with a company policy and compile accurate and specific actions.
Act first, then communicate: this is the only way to perform proper green marketing, without fear of greenwashing.
How to create a sustainable company strategy
A company has to:
- Define a corporate policy
- Define targets in the environmental, ethical, and social fields
- Build an effective and concrete path
In order to do so, a company has to analyse its ESG rating, because it establishes the effort of the company.
Once the index is set, a company can draft a sustainability report for non-financial disclosure, or it can also realise the real strategic plans that will allow it to reach the initial targets: an initial photograph, which will tell us where we begin. Then, the elaboration of a strategic plan will allow the customer to understand where to intervene and what to do to improve its conditions and follow its targets and goals. Successively, a communication strategy may be implemented: this will disclose what the company is doing and what its targets are.
Should you desire to undertake a truthful path to give more value to your company, please contact us.
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