Alongside other non-financial indicators, environmental reporting has moved from the sidelines of the corporate agenda to the strategic center. As the exhibit demonstrates, the number of companies publishing their environmental performance in CSR reports has steadily increased, regardless of the prevailing economic climate, while leading edge companies are increasingly folding these into their annual reports.
But how does reporting save money? Once companies begin to record environmental performance, they quickly discover cost benefits, which multiply as they establish more sophisticated, detailed metrics and apply them across all their operations. In order to maximize both the reputational and economic pay-off of environmental responsibility businesses should:
Examine the entire lifecycle of products and services, from supply chain through manufacturing processes to consumer use and disposal.
Engage employees. They are often the best source of low tech fixes and high tech solutions which pay dividends when taken to scale.
Explore “closed loop” reuse of waste products. What would otherwise end up in a landfill could supplement a company’s energy needs or be sold on.
Communicate all these activities internally and externally. Success breeds success.
Back to Hard times: make the case for corporate responsibility easier