Transforming Sustainability Into Business Strategy

According to an article on The Conference Board website, a growing number of the world’s largest companies are turning to “sustainability” as a strategic lens to help anticipate and navigate the complexity of the international economy.

Sustainability has migrated to the core of business strategy and planning. Boards and C-suite executives are working to better understand sustainability and its implications for their businesses.

Four major parameters, each with its own risk and opportunities, define sustainability for corporate leadership.

• Decoupling the intensive use of natural resources and materials from growth strategies;
• Transitioning to a lower carbon economy;
• Collaborating with value chain partners, governments and citizens so that business products and solutions ameliorate larger-scale societal problems; and
• Ensuring the adaptability of a business to global megatrend challenges such as climate change, water resource scarcity, population growth and large scale urbanization.

It is increasingly important that companies employ the language of sustainability to communicate their business purpose to their employees and external stakeholders.

For more information on how to make this happen, read the full article here.