Top four reasons businesses are focusing on sustainability

Top four reasons businesses are focusing on sustainability

Creating a more sustainable business can be achieved in several ways. Maybe it means installing solar panels on the roof of your office buildings. Perhaps you could give out free bicycles to your employees to ride to work, as IKEA has done, or even incentivize riding or walking to work, like Colorado's New Belgium Brewery started doing years ago.
If you haven't considered operating your business in a sustainable way, you could be missing out on an opportunity to save costs and drive new business, a group of business owners concluded at a recent event. The panelists spoke at a session held by the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce, according to Technically Philly.
The participants spoke on how the Swedish and Scandinavian culture has had a profound impact on corporate sustainability, and outlined four reasons why any company, anywhere in the world, should implement more environmentally sound practices.
1. Because it's what the customers want
Amy Bellcourt, vice president of communications for manufacturing firm SCA Americas, stated that hopping on board the green train makes business sense because it will drive your brand up in the eyes of the customers.
"If you have not started working with sustainability yet, you have missed a major opportunity," she said. "Customers are getting more aware every day and they demand sustainable business partners and products."
2. It will set you apart
If the competition is stiff in your respective industry, you may want to use sustainable practices to differentiate yourself from others in the field.
3.It's a great long-term investment
The media outlet pointed out that all the panelists agreed that when you see sustainability merely as an additional cost, you'll also likely miss out on huge opportunities. To Bellcourt, only looking at the upfront costs of sustainability is a major mistake.
"It is definitely giving us value back," Bellcourt said. "If sustainability would be a cost, we would never be able to keep it up in the long-run."
4. Good workers flock to forward-thinking companies
Bellcourt added that companies that focus on sustainability tend to attract the best talent in any given industry. This is especially true for the young workers around the world, she said, who want to work for companies with a "good agenda."
According to a recent study from Apparel, 87 percent of Fortune 1,000 CEOs said sustainability is important to profits, while another 73 percent said it can result in cost savings.