By David Beer, Industry RE Sustainability, Nov 2011 Tweet
Incorporating sustainability as a part of the business strategy.

Incorporating sustainability into the organisation is no longer a nice to have and it is fast becoming a core strategic risk consideration. Every business irrespective of the sector, size or location will be affected and the real winners will be the companies that take a systems view of their sustainability and business impact areas. The question really is, are businesses really spotting the right signals, trends, impactand thenintegrating these risk areasinto their risk registers to gain competitive advantage?. Sustainability should be integrated into corporate strategy and made central to core business policies, practices and investment decisions.

There is also a growing need for companies to look beyond carbon and energy management when making strategic risk and opportunity assessments around sustainability. Failing to do so could restrict the agility of the business and undermine competitiveness in the long term.Sustainability is not a cost; it’s a way companies can build business resilience and competitive advantage.

The risks associated with getting access to raw material, natural resources and utilities, assets values and life, operational performance, supply partnerships, markets and your customer base could all potentially change. Businesses need to have the right risk approach to fully understand their hot spots and red flags across the organisation. But if you understand your exposures, you engage with suppliers and partners and you have the right strategy and approach you will have a far clearer picture of the risks and opportunities that will impact on your organisation right across yourcorporate value chain.

If you have a clear view of all of your cradle to cradle impacts you can put the appropriate plans in place to collaborate, grow, innovate and inspire change. Then you can build resilience and create a more sustainable business for the short, medium and long term.  These areas include;

• Having regular board meeting at which the sustainability strategy for the business is reviewed in line with their corporate goals. Including the alignment of Sustainability and corporate objectives
• The board is responsibility sustainability performance
• The business has strong corporate governance with a focus on shareholder value
• The business has sustainability as a key risk in their risk register. They also access their other key risk areas against sustainability parameters.
• Sustainability Champions exist throughout the business.
• The Head of Sustainability reports directly to the CEO or a C level position.
• Sustainability strategy has clear goals and objectives with measurable KPI’s
• They have a sustainability management system in place and they know day by day how the business is performing
• They produce a yearly Sustainability report and disclosure it through on of the voluntary reporting mechanisms (CDP, GRI).
• They comply with all government policies and regulation

Making the necessary cultural shift can also be a challenge. If your sustainability strategy doesn’t already, then it ought to reflect the needs of the business, the markets you operate in, your consumers, your stakeholders and your core business ambitions. A glossy document is no good if the business isn’t engaged with the journey, the values and the underlying plan.