This week, Lawrence and I attended Reuters Responsible Business 2025. We were pleased to meet many blog subscribers and members and enjoyed picking your brains and engaging in great discussions. There was a palpable shift in mood from previous conferences, but not in the ways you might think. While much of the sustainability world has felt dour lately, the tone at this year’s conference was optimistic, but realistic.
If you’ve been to many sustainability conferences in the last few years, you’re probably used to hearing sustainability leaders on stage touting their wins, and not giving many practical takeaways. What made this conference special was the speakers’ focus on what strategies work and how they can enrich your sustainability program. Here’s some of our highlights:
- Value creation is key. Sustainability programs need to make business sense and create tangible, quantifiable benefits.
- Credibility is king. Lose the jargon and communicate your business case in traditional terms if you want to be taken seriously in the boardroom.
- Make it easy for consumers. Avoid offering a separate suite of sustainable products and focus on making your core products sustainable.
- Talk in terms of impact. Message around the tangible benefits of sustainable operations. Talk to your stakeholders in terms of health benefits, air quality improvements, and highlight the way sustainability improves their lives.
- Include an “and.” Don’t just promote sustainability for sustainability’s sake. Couch your projects in terms of “Sustainability AND cost savings” or “Sustainability AND efficiency.”
Sustainability leaders can no longer stake the future of their programs on regulatory compliance. The US is driving a deregulatory push, and countries like the EU and Canada are stalling on sustainability. If you want to push ahead, you’ll need hard dollar value and demonstrable ROI.
PracticalESG.com members have access to materials that can help you develop and deliver your business case. Our Practical Methodology for Sustainability ROI Using Company-Specific Business Fundamentals Guidebook and our ESG Business Value Subject Area page can help you identify and pursue sustainable business opportunities and get buy in from leadership.
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