Today, Gartner* revealed that sustainability remains a top 10 business priority, surpassing productivity and efficiency this year. Its latest report identified that CEOs are more committed to their environmental programmes and 69 percent of business leaders have identified new growth opportunities as a result. Companies are exploring this through sustainable products and services (33 percent), sustainable business practices (18 percent), stakeholder engagement (18 percent) and decarbonisation (18 percent) which is driving a more competitive market.
Rodolphe Malaguti, Product Strategy and Transformation, at Conga, welcomes this news and offers his advice to companies on how to accelerate their sustainability initiatives:
“Too often, these ‘commitments’ can be side tracked as leaders prioritise business performance and profit over all else, which leads to nothing other than corporate ‘green washing’. However, Gartner’s report reveals a considerable market shift and leaders are now starting to realise the value of these initiatives. As Gartner’s data shows, sustainability, when approached strategically, goes hand-in-hand with business success. It can provide organisations with the opportunity to optimise or scale their operations and explore new ways of working and, in turn, drive long-term and sustainable business growth.
“Gartner’s report identified sustainability as a top business priority and suggests that CEOs commitments to their green initiatives are now unwavering. Naturally, this will drive a more competitive business-to-business (B2B) environment as a more advanced sustainability programme will be a marker of a successful business. Overtime, organisations’ environmental and revenue goals will be more closely aligned. CEOs will increase their digital investments and adopt more sustainable products and services to stay ahead of their competitors, but they need to think about the bigger picture here.
“This report proves that sustainability can be profitable and highlights the important role that digital technology plays when it comes to driving better financial and environmental outcomes. Transitioning to a low-carbon economy will rely heavily on digital innovations. So, enterprises need to be smarter and think about better ways of combining their technology and sustainability goals and identifying greener business practices. Leaders need to rethink how they operate and establish sustainability goals which technology can assist with and even consider how their choice of partner could affect their own sustainability and growth objectives.”
