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Should businesses invest in becoming more sustainable?

Green aerial photograph

In an ever-changing world, businesses are shifting from shareholder capitalism focused on short-term thinking to stakeholder capitalism with long-term, centre-stage focus on the planetary and societal impacts of business operations. Consumers are behind this shift seeing through greenwashing and purpose-led marketing campaigns. They want action and they want it now. And, as a result, so do your shareholders.

This matters a great deal in the digital world and to the resilience of your business. The pandemic prompted an increased uptake of digital solutions and expedited a move towards mass digitisation as everyday life was forced to move online. Across the world, screen time rocketed and a world constructed by fibres and algorithms became the new normal. 

However, there are consequences to this. As digital technology evolves, so does its environmental footprint. Pressure on businesses has come top- down and bottom-up to do something about it. Stakeholders are demanding transparency and customers are driving new ethical business trends as awareness on business impact on the environment grows. 

Ignorance is risk

If your business is heavily reliant on digital then you simply can’t ignore the voices coming from those who feel let down after COP26 or no longer wish to purchase from those who are harming our planet.

Research from our recent Business Resilience Index found that 79% of consumers believe that “businesses have a responsibility to invest in becoming more sustainable and environmentally friendly”.

We’ve had it fairly easy in the digital world - not everyone realises it's responsible for producing as much CO2 as the aviation industry. But our time in the spotlight will come and you need to have answers ready for your customers.


 

What actions can your business take?

The Kin + Carta Business Resilience Index gives an indication of where focus could be placed to improve your environmental approach to become a leader rather than part of the problem. This includes: 

  1. Take learnings from other industries to level-up your responsibility credentials and join the global push for a more sustainable future for everyone.
  2. Don’t wait for external pressure to become more responsible; become a responsible leader in your sector by transforming your business towards carbon positivity.
  3. Embed sustainability into everything you do and carve out your own path; being more responsible (and measuring it) looks different to every organisation.

Responsibility starts with research

With a firm belief in ‘what gets measured gets managed’, the Index plots the characteristics and practices that constitute resilience to help you measure and improve yours. 

Our experts have researched hundreds of articles and analysed thousands of data points to determine business resilience, including: consideration of diverse leadership and gender pay gap, B Corp certification, philanthropy efforts, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) mapping, CDP scores and energy efficiency ratings for digital estates.

 

If you want to avoid the backlash to the greenwash and become a truly responsible digital business then the report is free to read now.

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