Sustainability expert CB Bhattacharya shares how to build a business case for sustainability for your firm.
Key takeaways
- Establish how sustainability can create additional value for your business
- Build ownership around sustainability
- Follow a simple process of incubating, launching and entrenching
Our recent CBI Sustainability webinar discussed the importance of building a business case to drive progress in any organisation. CB Bhattacharya went as far as saying we’re doomed without investing in sustainability. But, on the upside, he pointed to research that shows that sustainability can create additional value for a firm.
It can do this in two ways:
- The direct route: when you cut emissions, you directly cut costs as, for example, you're using less electricity. You're helping both the environment and your bottom line.
- The indirect route: this refers to stakeholders’ reactions to the initiatives that you are taking. If your employees are more energised because of your carpooling initiative, then they will be more energised and productive at work too. This counts towards both top line and bottom-line savings.
And although many firms think of sustainability as a compliance issue, an increasing number are seeing it as a way to reduce risk.
But how do we get