2Sustain

A new report confirms what many businesses already know: corporate sustainability contributes directly to business value.

The study, titled Sustainability performance management: How CFOs can unlock value, was released by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), and it concludes that sustainability can drive value across several dimensions, including:

• Revenue generation
• Cost control
• Building trust
• Risk management

However, the research also found that for many organizations, current efforts to manage sustainability performance are more tactical than strategic. That means many companies are failing to realize the full business benefit of their sustainability efforts.

CFOs can help bridge this gap. Since the finance team has visibility into all aspects of the business, it can help determine the role sustainability initiatives play in efficiency, cost control, compliance, risk management and competitive advantage.

From the report: (more…)

Over the next two years, the global sustainable business market will reach a tipping point, triggering rapid market expansion, according to new research from Verdantix.

After analyzing spending patterns of more than 2,500 global firms, Verdantix found that growth rates of investment in sustainable business programs will be between 50 percent and 100 percent higher in 2013 than in 2011. As a result, total spend on sustainable business programs by $1bn revenues firms in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US markets alone will hit $60 billion in 2013.

In addition, Verdantix says the “tipping point” will be fueled by these three specific factors: (more…)

Minneapolis-based Target Corporation has stepped up its efforts toward environmental sustainability.

Last month, the company announced several new company-wide sustainability commitments –all of which underscore how Target has incorporated “going green” into its overall business strategy.

More specifically, Target says it plans to: (more…)

For the past few weeks, I’ve used this blog to post results from a variety of recent studies that focused on sustainability practices in business. If you put all of that data together I think one thing, in particular, is abundantly clear: now, more than ever before, companies are concerned about sustainability, and most are doing something about it by establishing new guidelines, implementing new policies, and establishing new programs.

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