We work with a wide range of companies to help them reach their sustainability goals. Sustainability goals and circular economy targets are an essential part of conducting business today. Many of our clients are facing similar problems in this area.
As a result, we’ve created a list of the largest sustainability challenges our clients are dealing with today. Read on to learn about some of the largest issues faced by organisations around the world.
1. Translating long-term sustainability goals in each department, brand, and region
Many organisations are feeling pressured to minimise the impact their businesses have on the environment. It’s common for organisations to claim they will reach their carbon emissions goals by 2035, while others may say they’ll be net zero much later. Another issue is greenwashing, which is the process of claiming to become more green when that’s not truly happening with the business.
The problem is that these claims must be backed with practical action plans. Brand managers, directors, and product leads are all trying to find the right opportunities to make progress with their ambitious sustainability claims within the next few months to two years. But they’re often unsure of where to start, the amount of their energy consumption, and more.
It’s certainly essential to do what’s possible within the short term; however, businesses around the globe must create plans that include actionable steps and realistic timelines.
2. How to influence customers? What role do clients play?
Another serious sustainability challenge is how to overcome just focusing on processes within the organisation. Companies must also be concerned with how to influence their customers to become more sustainable. Just how can this be accomplished?
Here are a few examples of how an organisation can work with clients to become more sustainable:
- Influence behaviour to convince customers to join recycling schemes
- Change habits to switch to less wasteful products and services
- Track product usage patterns to understand where they can improve the durability of a product
The fact is that everyone needs to be on board with sustainability and decreasing carbon emissions. To do this, organisations must become very personal with their clients. However, this can be difficult to achieve. The solution can often be found in the development of a customer-centric approach that puts a strong focus on empathy.
3. Battlegrounds: better packaging and less energy consumption
Improved packaging is a sensitive issue when it comes to single-use packages. Many governments are forcing businesses to make the change to more sustainable, eco-friendly alternatives. However, not all companies make this a major part of their corporate strategy. Even so, this is a highly crucial issue when it comes to sustainability.
The key may be to demonstrate to businesses that packaging offers a growth opportunity. For instance, products sold online and shipped through e-commerce channels don’t need the same level of anti-theft packaging as that used in stores. This is the optimal time for businesses to take advantage of developing better packaging solutions.
For instance, redesigning product packaging may save a business money. This may be done through the re-use of containers, utilising lighter materials, and having fewer production steps for each product. This can result in substantial savings for many companies.
Another example is energy consumption used across the value chain and production process. Here, again, sustainability doesn’t have to be the main driver. Instead, businesses can use less energy to stop wasting money, creating a strong drive to improve energy performance.
4. Set and measure sustainability KPIs
Another common sustainability issue is to set up and measure sustainability KPIs. After all, it’s essential that a company understands where it stands and where it’s headed in regards to practising sustainability. Oftentimes, businesses are not sure where to start or even how to gather the data needed to establish their sustainability KPIs. So, they need guidance and examples from other organisations to understand what’s needed, what works, and more.
What many businesses don’t understand is that it’s necessary to develop a strategic exercise, where some KPIs are scrapped while others are further developed. Clear goals are necessary to achieve any solution. Moving targets are never helpful. Instead, it’s imperative to figure out which goals are necessary and what to prioritise. In addition, all stakeholders must be a part of the strategy in order for it to succeed.
5. Sustainability portfolio evaluation
Some companies have taken meaningful steps to become more sustainable in recent years. A few have launched beneficial projects; however, they’re not always consistent. The result is that some organisations have started to realise their initiatives must be aligned in order to optimise their sustainability portfolios.
This topic can become part of the governance strategy. However, businesses sometimes run into confusion about who is responsible for what, how to communicate, how to make decisions on budgets, and more. It may be possible to make all sustainability-related tasks and goals explicit for each project, person, and department within the company. When certain initiatives fail (as some are bound to do), they should be scrapped or evolved into workable solutions.
Portfolio exercises of these kinds can be a sign that a company is on the right track with its sustainability efforts. However, it can also be an indication that they’re doing too much at once.
The solution: Hiring a sustainability consultancy
The solution to these issues is hiring a sustainability consultancy that offers businesses the support and guidance they need to reduce carbon emissions and become more sustainable.
A sustainability consultancy provides a team of experts with the knowledge and experience to support a business. What’s more, some consultancies offer certification programs that offer the required data to develop goals and an actionable plan for sustainability. It takes meaningful change to bring about a more sustainable world.
It’s crucial to look for a sustainability consultancy that offers a simplified process. While sustainability is a complex topic, it shouldn’t be too difficult for a company to learn how they impact the environment and how they can minimise their impact.
Becoming more sustainable is a worthy goal, but many organisations need support and guidance on how to develop their own sustainability goals and create action plans that work. And many companies can reach their sustainability goals by hiring a sustainability consultancy that simplifies the process and offers support each step of the way.
