10 Jun Why Sustainability is Now the Key Driver of Innovation
There is no doubt that Innovation is a key part of securing any company’s future. Constantly adapting to new technologies, improving current projects, and solving previously-unaddressed customer problems is the best way to ensure that a company is never left behind. Sustainability needs to be an integral part of innovation and business planning. It needs to be anchored across the organization. Sustainability represents a key driver of profit and long-term growth for many of today’s businesses.
Advantages of sustainable innovation
1) Competitive advantage
Revenue from sustainable products and services is increasing as more organizations embrace sustainable models. Environmental standards and changes in consumer behavior foster innovation as well as open new business and growth opportunities.
2) Increased financial performance
Companies start to realize significant cost savings through operational efficiencies by better management of natural resources like water and energy, as well as minimizing waste. Companies are also driving down costs by systematically managing their value chains and mitigating risks arising from climate change, resource scarcity, or community issues.
3) Talent attraction and employee engagement
Companies with strong sustainability programs are better in employee morale, loyalty, and turnover and have a significant increase in productivity over firms that did not adopt sustainability practices.
Steps and strategies to help you become sustainable
Establish sustainability as a core company value.
By making sustainability part of your culture, you ensure that every decision you make already considers your actions’ environmental and ethical impacts. Every leader, manager, and employee must be aware of sustainable practices, and capable of offering sustainable ideas.
Ensure that you have clear and achievable goals
Look at the areas in which your environmental impact may need some work, and create actionable improvement goals with set timelines.
Make sustainability a part of every process
Sustainable practices need to be woven into every facet of design, and every theme of innovative ideation, from the moment of inception. If you consider sustainability targets to be an afterthought, rather than a core part of each design and workflow, then you may find that it’s difficult to achieve them at all.
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