Voice of the Industry: Sustainability

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key takeaways for businesses

Sustainability is key for business success

Today, brands are facing increasing pressure from consumers, governments, NGOs, investors and insurance companies to act urgently and help to solve global challenges such as climate change, pollution and poverty.

Sustainability is starting to be perceived as no longer optional and becoming part of the business bottom line, with tangible investment opportunities across all regions.

The SDGs are at the core of business strategies

While many companies are using internal metrics to asses their sustainability strategies, leading players are moving away from this inside-out approach that looks at the business in isolation,

More companies are expected to use the SDG framework as a more holistic approach to corporate sustainability planning and reporting, with market opportunities valued in trillions of US dollars.

Future investment in the waste and recycling sector

While there are many areas where businesses can invest in sustainability, over the next five years, companies are planning cash injections in recycling and sustainable product development.

This comes as no surprise after the rising awareness of the threat of plastics in the ocean. Companies are looking for ways to improve products’ recyclability and recycling, investing in cross-sector partnerships to tackle the problem.

From competitive advantage to requirement

With more visible environmental issues, investors are moving away from short-term profit and injecting capital into more sustainable companies.

As these pressures continue to rise, organisations are seeing sustainability as an area of competitive advantage. However, with more companies integrating sustainability into their core business strategies, it will slowly become less of a competitive advantage and more of a requirement.