Sustainability in Business: Ethics, Compliance, and Profitability
Consumers' awareness of ethical behavior and environmental sustainability has dramatically increased, making sustainability a crucial aspect of business strategy. A values-driven approach is essential for business long-term success. Read more below about how just making a few changes to your business strategies to promote sustainability can significantly improve operations.
What Makes Sustainability So Important?
When we talk about sustainability in business, we are referring to the impact that businesses have on the environment or society. A sustainable business strategy aims to favorably impact one or both of these areas.
Sustainability initiatives can contribute to an organization's overall performance. While sustainability methods may require a short-term investment, they may result in long-term advantages. Studies show that the most sustainable organizations are also the most successful. Companies with strong sustainability practices outperform the market in both the medium and long term.
The Benefits of Sustainability in Your Business
All over the country, businesses are increasingly integrating sustainable practices into their operations. With just a few positive changes, companies reduce the risk of losing clients, staff, and revenue. Adopting sustainability within the company can lead to:
- Enhanced Brand Image
Consumers are prioritizing companies based on personal, environmental, and social values. This means a greater need for sustainable practices.
A recent study shows that 58% of U.S. consumers prefer purchasing from companies that promote energy efficiency, worker rights, health and safety benefits, and other sustainable practices. By prioritizing sustainability, you not only benefit your brand image, but you also benefit the company, your employees, their families, your investors, and beyond.
- Reduce Operating Costs
Sustainable practices often lead to reducing total operation costs. This includes making investments in more energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, choosing more energy-efficient lighting, improving insulation, and so on. In the long term, these procedures are more valuable, even though they could be more expensive to implement.
- Improved Hiring and Retention of Staff
People want to work with companies with an ethical workplace culture that supports social and environmental initiatives. Not only do sustainable practices reduce costs, but they also reportedly increase employee efficiency and retention.
Environmentally friendly workplaces improve morale, reduce absenteeism, and create a happier environment. Green offices featuring natural light, ventilation, and plants create a comfortable work environment, increasing productivity, sales, and creativity.
- Compliance with Regulations
Businesses can better comply with regulations when they incorporate sustainability into their operations. This makes it easier for them to carry out the government's legal requirements to protect the environment.
- Increased Profit
Company profit can increase by reducing expense costs, improving reputation and brand recognition, and attracting new staff members and investors.
A Goldman Sachs study found that 72% of businesses with environmental and social policies had an undeniable advantage over their competitors and that these businesses outperformed the overall stock market by 25%.
Incorporating Sustainability into Your Business
Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of implementing sustainability into your business, the next question has to be: how do I start?
One good place to start would be by evaluating your current practices, including electricity, fuel consumption, and supply chain. From there, set benchmarks to measure success and identify areas for improvement. Being environmentally conscious and conducting business responsibly means that you must put in consistent, continuous effort.
You will want to make a plan defining your new priorities for introducing new sustainable practices. Be sure to include sustainability in your company's mission statement. Accountability must be a big part of your sustainability plan.
Starting small with one or two projects can help businesses gain momentum and knowledge about sustainability initiatives. This helps employees understand the challenges and roadblocks of change implementation, preparing them for future initiatives.
Get Started Adopting Sustainability into Your Business
While establishing sustainable practices in your company may require time, resources, attention, and commitment, the end result is more than beneficial. 360training offers a multitude of resources and training courses to equip you with the skills you need to make your business more sustainable. Follow the link to find out about our Code of Conduct Training, which offers a catalog of courses geared towards improving ethical practices in your business. View our many offerings by visiting our website today!
