What does it mean to be a sustainable business?

Ingraining the green agenda into long-term strategy
The term ‘sustainability’ is being used more and more frequently, especially in the business community. With pressing government targets and increased environmental awareness throughout society, it’s an unavoidable keyword, but most businesses are aware of their responsibilities to the overarching green agenda.
However, ‘sustainability’ is very different to ‘environmentally-friendly’. The latter may involve the use of recycled ink cartridges, for example, or ensuring staff recycle waste materials thoroughly. A sustainable business, on the other hand, involves long-term, strategic planning that allies business growth with positive environmental and societal continuity.
“Generally, a business needs to ask itself, are its operations consistent with the rate of replenishment of resources that it uses?” says Harry Morrison, Director of Certification at the Carbon Trust. “Such resources are not always obvious, either. They can include social factors, too.”
But in an environmental context, it can be difficult to gauge real sustainability through tangible results. However, Morrison says that looking at historical precedents and government targets can provide a benchmark for companies looking to pursue a solid sustainability agenda. “The Climate Change Act dictates that we achieve an 80 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, and there’s an interim target of 34 per cent reduction on 1990 levels by 2020. That means businesses are looking at a 1 to 2 per cent emissions reduction every year up to 2020, and then around a 2 to 3 per cent reduction annually until 2050.
“Now, it’s hard to generalise the growth of the economy at the moment, but if you look at the historical rate of improvement of around 2 per cent a year in economic growth, businesses need to become around 3 or 4 per cent more efficient every year to maintain that consistency.”
However, Morrison does note that different sectors have different abilities to meet those targets. “Energy intensity and available sustainability investment will vary widely across the business community as a whole, but these figures make a good starting point for debate,” he says.
The Carbon Trust offers Standard accreditation, which indicates that a business is making tangible progress in its energy reduction. Over 600 UK companies have earned the Standard, saving a collective total of around £250 million in energy bills, and a three per cent cut in emissions annually. This, Morrison says, is a positive sign that businesses understand the issue and are making real progress.
However, even with long-term targets and a planned energy trajectory in place, businesses should be wary about resting on their laurels. “We’re talking about a journey here,” says Morrison. “It’s a competitive race to be more sustainable than your peer groups and it’s absolutely vital that businesses keep reinventing their sustainability strategy and challenging themselves to do more. Especially as technology develops, there are opportunities to examine your supply chain, or the way products are designed – indeed, your business model overall.”
Morrison adds that, in a sense, the issue of sustainability is no different to any other business challenge. “Businesses that stand still will lose out in the long run, because focus and strategy in this area makes both environmental and financial sense.”