According to
Forbes, incorporating sustainable practices is something that all companies could afford to embrace. There are many benefits to the company itself as well as to the community groups they are supporting.
Reporter, James Epstin-Reeves, lists 5 such benefits for companies.
- Cost savings – One of the easiest places for a company to start engaging in sustainability is to use it as a way to cut costs. Whether it’s using less packaging or less energy, these savings add up quickly.
- Brand differentiation – In the past, brand differentiation was one of the primary reasons companies embraced sustainability.
- Long-term thinking – “The only reason we’re doing sustainability is to drive the growth of Unilever,” McDonald said in the video mentioned above. Indeed, CSR is an effort to look at the company’s long-term interest and ensuring that the company’s future is… well… sustainable. Hence, that’s why I prefer the term sustainability to CSR. It is a shift from worrying about the next fiscal quarter’s financial results to the impact business decisions today have on financial (and social) results ten years from now.
- Customer engagement – What’s the point of doing CSR if no one knows about it? For the past few years, Walmart has established itself as a leader on environmental efforts. Yes, you read that correctly, Walmart is a leader in environmentalism. In 2008, Walmart ran an ad campaign designed to raise awareness about the environment and the product choices consumers could make. Using CSR can help you engage with your customers in new ways. Since the message is about something “good,” it can often be an easier way to talk to your customers. This is an underused tool for business-to-business company communication.
- Employee engagement – Along similar lines, if your own employees don’t know what’s going on within your organization, you’re missing an opportunity. Companies like Sara Lee created a cross-functional, global Sustainability Working Team to help create a strategy for sustainability. At a more grass roots level, the Solo Cup Company created the Sustainability Action Network to activate employees in community service focused on the company’s CSR priorities.
