For 2012, Corporate Sustainability Leaders Focus on Employee Engagement and Supply Chain

Where will your company focus its sustainability initiatives in the year ahead?

New survey results from corporate sustainability research and advisory firm Green Research show that, looking ahead to 2012, the majority of the businesses polled have decided to devote significant time and financial resources on two initiatives above all others: employee engagement and supplier sustainability performance.
The in-depth survey of nearly 50 top North American and European senior sustainability executives found that:

• 88 percent of companies plan to invest in employee engagement in 2012.
• 73 percent said they will focus on improving sustainability performance of their suppliers.

In addition, Green Research discovered that sustainability spending will rise significantly in 2012.

• 50 percent of those polled said their firms will increase spending on sustainability initiatives.
• 33 percent plan to add staff to their sustainability departments.
• 25 percent reported they will increase budgets of sustainability departments.

The report also includes insights regarding:

• Carbon accounting
• Ecolabels
• Life cycle assessment
• Corporate reputation
• Sustainability reporting
• Environmental credits and offsets

And interestingly, Green Research found that, despite there being several ranking systems available, the majority of sustainability executives rely on only two ranking indexes for measuring corporate sustainability: the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.

As David Schatsky, author of the report, concludes, it makes sense for companies to concentrate their efforts on employee engagement and especially, supplier sustainability performance. A decade ago, concerns like these may not have been high on the corporate agenda. But now, in light of factors such as the volatile economic environment, increased supplier risk, globalization and climate change concerns, companies need to rethink their sourcing strategies to ensure continued success.

“Companies have good reason to focus on employee engagement and supply chain,” Schatsky said. “Engaged employees make things happen. And the supply chain is where the bulk of the environmental impact is for many companies.”

--courtesy of WSP's partner, Aravo --