What does “commercialising sustainability mean”?

Sustainabiliy can be so much more than a box ticking exercise. It can help organisations look at their operations and products and services in a new light, identifying new efficiencies and new revenue opportunties.

Operations

The foundation of “corporate sustainability” starts with a carbon footprint. Everything you use to run your organisations costs money. Well carbon is no different, everything you buy “costs carbon”, but instead of £ we talk is tonnes of carbon. So, just like money, you can use carbon as a way to spot innefficiencies in the way your organisation operates. You can talk about those efficiencies is a new and engaging way, giving a feel good factor to improvements.

Let’s look at a scenario, let’s say you have a target to cut operating costs by 10% in the next 12 months and one big area of expense in business travel. You start promoting virtual meetings, train travel and set up a company car scheme for electric vehicles only. At the end of the year you hit that 10%, congratulations. You can also say you burnt less fuel in your company cars and therefore reduced your carbon footprint, reducing the impact on the planet, whilst saving money. It is a win win.

Organisations that meaning fully engage with sustainability have shown to stay solvent for longer, they also have better staff retention because people like working for an organisation that has purpose beyond making money. THese types of organisations also tend to attrack more customers.

Revenue