If you only read headlines, then you are probably pessimistic about the state of corporate sustainability right now. Regulatory pullbacks and delays, weaponization of DEI, inadequate progress on emissions reductions/targets, carbon offset scandals – these are the stuff of most media reporting these days. But while doomsday and fear-based reporting may drive views and clicks, it is very superficial and totally misses the underlying positive reality.
Sustainability has never been better and stronger than it is right now.
Here’s why – renewed focus on the business value/ROI of corporate sustainability efforts forces companies (and sustainability professionals) to really, truly become one with business. This separates the wheat from the chaff.
Maybe CSRD hasn’t been fun, but there has never been as much operational data in the context of ESG matters as we have now. Sustainability professionals continue to be concerned about reporting and compliance, but that’s taking a backseat to executive pressure for showing financial value/benefits of expenditures. You know – old fashioned ROI. And this is a very good thing.
The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about the need for CSOs to change how they think:
“’Before, the persona of a CSO was sustainability expert, not business model expert,’ said Lane Jost, head of ESG advisory at consulting firm Edelman Smithfield. ‘In the last 12 months, the CSO equivalent now has a business operational and finance skill set rather than sustainability skillset’…
‘It’s less about promoting the topic and proving the topic’s relevancy and instead more about prioritization, integration and execution,’ said Sophia Mendelsohn, chief sustainability officer at SAP.
Mendelsohn added that the CSO role itself was maturing, with it now more likely to command a profit and loss directive as part of their goals.”
Trellis reports on this in the context of CSO career development:
“’Now more than ever, chief sustainability officers and sustainability professionals need to link their work to the strategic objectives of the organization,’ said Nicole Darnall, the Arlene R. and Robert P. Kogod Eminent Scholar Chair in Sustainability at American University, for both the Kogod School of Business and the School of Public Affairs. ‘The ability to demonstrate business value is much more imperative…'”
The legal department is still involved, but even their work is morphing into business decision support.
For decades, sustainability professionals fought to be business-relevant and on executive radar screens. We got what we wished for, but it means we need to think about business needs/reality first. Not everyone is prepared for that.
Are you defending your sustainability department funding – or possibly your job? We have resources to help, including Guidebooks like Simplifying ESG/Sustainability Business Value, from which you can learn about how to focus your sustainability value messaging to executives, and our Practical Methodology for Sustainability ROI Using Company-Specific Business Fundamentals.
Our free blog also provides thoughtful content that sustainability professionals can apply daily. Some subscribers use our blogs to educate their C-suites on what is going on beyond those doomsday headlines. If you aren’t already subscribed to our complimentary blog, sign up here for daily updates delivered right to you.
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