The combination of accelerating climate change, rising income inequality, the Covid pandemic, and geopolitical conflicts have created a perfect storm of challenges to how businesses and economies are run. In response, pressed by investors, employees, activists, and consumers, companies are launching sustainability initiatives at an unprecedented pace. This is good news. After many years of skepticism and lack of commitment, companies have finally begun taking sustainability seriously, setting ambitious goals and targets. The bad news is that there is still a huge gap between ambition and action.
How Sustainability Efforts Fall Apart
Corporate structure and culture often derail companies’ best intentions. Here’s how to overcome these common pitfalls.
September 26, 2022
Lucy Jones
Summary.
Sustainability has become the new corporate imperative. Companies have begun doing their homework, diligently setting up a number of initiatives. This is a good starting point, but too often, firms are unable to systematically scale these efforts to achieve a more transformative outcome. This is because internal hidden enemies act as antibodies and resist the change. Unless a company tackles the enemies early on, it will never be able to achieve sustainability at scale. Defeating the enemies is possible, as shown by the success stories in different industries. It’s time for firms to put in practice concrete countermeasures to fight back against the hidden enemies and unleash the full potential of sustainability.