Findings from the 2011 Sustainability & Innovation Global Executive Study and Research Project

For the third consecutive year, MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group have conducted a survey of managers and executives from companies around the world, asking how they are developing and implementing sustainable business practices. 

More than 4,000 managers from 113 countries responded to the survey.  According to the respondents, 70% of companies have placed sustainability permanently on their management agendas.  Two-thirds of the resondents said that sustainability was necessary to be competitive in the marketplace.  And, many companies are increasing their commitments to sustainability inititiaves despite a lackluster economy.

On the other hand, respondents indicate that sustainability ranks eighth in importance among other management agenda items.  Economic growth continues to deplete the planet's stocks of natural capital, despite the efforts of many companies to minimize their impacts, decrease their carbon footprints, and cultivate closed-loop production systems.

The authors believe that these mixed results are overall positive, however.  They suggest that the sustainability movement is nearing a tipping point, at which a substantial portion of companies are seeing sustainable business practices as a necessity and are also deriving a financial benefit from sustainable activities.  Leading the charge are a group of organizations that are not merely implementing individual initiatives -- such as lowering carbon emissions and investing in renewables -- but are also changing their operating frameworks and strategies.  The report explores what sets these organizations apart and lessons that other organizations can take from these innovators.

Download the report here.

New Ways to Exploit Raw Data May Bring Surge of Innovation, a Study Says

Steve Lohr, New York Times, May 13, 2011

Data is a vital raw material of the information economy, much as coal and iron ore were in the Industrial Revolution. But the business world is just beginning to learn how to process it all.

Mining and analyzing these big new data sets can open the door to a new wave of innovation, accelerating productivity and economic growth. Some economists, academics and business executives see an opportunity to move beyond the payoff of the first stage of the Internet, which combined computing and low-cost communications to automate all kinds of commercial transactions.

The next stage, they say, will exploit Internet-scale data sets to discover new businesses and predict consumer behavior and market shifts.

Read the article in the NY Times.

Corporate Water Footprint Study

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has launched a new program, CDP Water Disclosure, aimed at compiling data from companies and organizations on their total water usage globally.

CDP Water Disclosure will provide water-related data from the world’s largest corporations to inform the global market place on investment risk and commercial opportunity. Information will be compiled on water usage and exposure to water stress in companies’ own operations and in their supply chains, and on companies’ water management plans and governance. The objective is that data will provide insight into the strategies deployed by many of the largest companies in the world on water and will be used to help drive investment towards sustainable water use.

The questionnaire will be issued to approximately 300 of the world's largest corporations in water-intensive sectors on April 1, 2010. CDP is asking that the questionnaire be returned by July 31, 2010, and anticipates publishing the findings between October and December 2010.

Sustainability as a “Fiduciary Duty”

Intel has amended its corporate charter to include mandatory reporting on "corporate responsibility and sustainability performance."

Intel has changed their corporate charter to require their Governance and Nominating Committee to:

"review(s) and report(s) to the Board on a periodic basis with regards to matters of corporate responsibility and sustainability performance, including potential long and short term trends and impacts to our business of environmental, social and governance issues, including the company's public reporting on these topics."

For two years, Harrington Investments Inc. introduced a shareholder resolution to amend Intel's bylaws to create a Board Committee on Sustainability. With this change, Harrington agreed to withdraw its bylaw amendment resolution.

Intel's decision was influenced by an opinion from its corporate counsel, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, which stated that under Delaware law directors have a fiduciary duty to address corporate responsibility and sustainability performance.

(via TriplePundit)

Corporate America Moving Sustainability Initiatives Forward

A 2009 study commissioned by Siemens Building Technologies and conducted by McGraw-Hill shows that three out of four executives view sustainability as consistent with their company’s profit mission and engage in sustainability activities, double the amount in 2006. Over half (58%) believe sustainability will serve the financial performance of their company, up from 31% in 2006.

The economic crisis has supported and not deterred sustainability activity in the firms represented in the study. Over half (57%) believe sustainability practices are either unaffected or aided by a down economy. Only 32% view an economic crisis as an obstacle.

Energy savings is the most important driver toward sustainability, with 75% citing it this year, and 73% in 2006. Government regulations decreased as a driver with only 29% citing it, down from 40% in 2006. However, 72% expect it to become a requirement.

Over 80% of larger firms believe sustainability provides market differentiation, and over 70% expect sustainability efforts to retain and attract customers and reduce the costs of doing business. Almost a third reported dedicated funding for sustainability.

Sixty-nine percent reported that their firm employs three or more sustainability practices. The most common sustainability practices are:

• Recycling
• Employee engagement/activities
• Green building
• Initiatives with NGOs/voluntary government programs
• Publication of annual sustainability reports

Read the Executive Summary of the study here, and click here to download the complete report.