Leaders from organisations including The Sydney Opera House, Lion, Coca-Cola and Diageo shared insight and learning driving sustainable transformation at the NSW ESG Summit this week.
Here are my ten takeaways / reflections from the day.
- Leverage Your Business Strengths: Focus on your business's purpose, strengths, and values to make the most authentic and impactful difference.
- Clarify Your Strategic Imperative: Recognise that stakeholder expectations for sustainability are likely to evolve over time. Your business needs a clear strategic imperative for the sustainability action it decides to take to avoid wavering in the wind.
- Define Your Focus: Companies fall foul when they their sustainability efforts aim to cater to all needs. Instead, consider what your business stands for and what it wants to achieve, and align your sustainability focus accordingly.
- Competitive Advantage: Understand that sustainability leadership can be a competitive advantage in the market.
- Link Sustainability Goals to Financing: Connecting sustainability goals to financing can help embed sustainable practices throughout your organisation.
- See Mandatory Climate Disclosure Reporting As An Opportunity: View mandatory climate disclosure reporting as more than a compliance exercise. It's an opportunity to rally the support of your board and accelerate progress.
- Actively Work With Your Value Chain On Emissions Reduction: Collaborate with your value chain to reduce emissions. Go beyond functional data exchanges to work collaboratively with suppliers to tackle the emissions challenge. Get your suppliers in a room to work through the challenge together.
- Supplier Engagement Strategy: Consider tailoring your engagement strategy with suppliers based on their level of maturity in sustainability practices. All businesses are at different stages.
- Prioritise Trust Building In Your Susty Comms: Acknowledge that consumer trust is essential in the sustainability space and is a bigger concern than the cost of sustainable products for most consumers.
- Balance Global & Local Impact: If you're a multinational with a presence in Australia, find a balance between creating a global impact and ensuring there's enough local relevance and applicability.
