Data is an important tool for driving sustainability efforts across all industries. For example, data pertaining to energy, water, waste, and ethical workforce practices can aid organizations in working more intelligently, sustainably, and efficiently.
The power of data is borne out in a recent SAP Insights survey. This was based around business professionals who were knowledgeable about their companies’ sustainability goals.
The analysis indicates that organizations that put more effort into the environmental goal expect to see better company performance in general as well as improved economic performance. However, all survey respondents cited data-related uncertainties as the most significant barriers to acting on sustainability.
According to the SAP survey, 17 percent of respondents find that matters of environmental sustainability are financially important. The survey refers to these as: ‘Material Nows’. The ‘Nows’ tend to have more committed leaders with a vision for immediate change and a willingness to incorporate sustainability into their business operations.
The main driver for these firms to become more sustainable is because their CEO and Board are driving the agenda. Other motivations include government regulations, the company’s commitment to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the opportunities that sustainability can bring to the bottom line.
Of the remaining 83 percent of companies surveyed, 22 percent think sustainability will be important to their business within five years. These people, referred to as ‘Imminents’, state they are more likely to take action on sustainability issues and see higher performance gains than the remaining 61 percent of respondents, referred to simply as ‘Laters’.
The ‘Nows’ say they’re more satisfied with the quality of data on environmental sustainability. The ‘Imminents’ and the ‘Laters ‘are more likely to experience issues with data quality and they are not confident that their data is updated regularly or covers the required scope.
The increased confidence in their data could be because the ‘Nows’ have a larger and deeper database from which to derive insights that can help them achieve more useful and predictable results. Of this cohort, 44 percent have been collecting relevant data for five years or more, compared to 34 percent of the ‘Laters’ and 20 percent of the ‘Imminents’.
In addition, the ‘Now’ respondents report that their companies have more data about the environmental impacts of their business compared with the other groups. They are also deploying data as a valuable tool to plan better for a more sustainable future.
For example, many consumer products from Miami to Mumbai are packaged the same way, no matter where they are sold. However, an environmentally motivated internal standard can change this moving towards adopting packaging for the applicable market and the prevailing environmental conditions.
While some firms have made more progress than others, sustainability is a major strategic and operational challenge for all respondents. Nevertheless, firms that are harnessing data to inform decision-making are more likely to weather the changes ahead.
