The High-Performance View of Sustainability

Sustainability, a historically divisive issue in the short-term focused business world, has gained a lot of broad acceptance in the last few years. In part, this can be attributed to grass-roots movements and anticipated government regulations. And some of this acceptance is due to ongoing evolution in the definition and meaning of sustainability, creating a new focus that forward-thinking business minds can get behind. Sustainability is no longer considered just “going green,” it’s about supporting a sustainable business model – one that encompasses environmental, social, political and market concerns. But the major hurdle that sustainability initiatives have cleared is the goal of creating cost-effective benefits to the bottom line. At least for high-performance companies, that is.

In the Sustainability In Today’s Work Environment Survey Portfolio, i4cp reveals that high-performance organizations – companies that outperform their competitors in market share, revenue growth, profitability and customer satisfaction – are more likely to see measurable benefits from sustainability initiatives than low-performing organizations. In fact, 22.2% of high-performance organizations say they see measurable benefits to a great or very great extent, compared to only 9.4% of low-performing ones. These are benefits directly seen on the bottom line, not just branding and PR opportunities. In other words, cutting waste, conserve energy and improving efficiencies.

Read More…