Gage Your Company Sustainability Project Maturity Index

When it comes to sustainability, achieving a few early, quantifiable wins often outweighs attempting to tackle multiple large-scale projects all at once. Trying to do too much can lead to burnout and failure. However, companies also need to scale their sustainability efforts aggressively to meet their long-term targets.?

To balance these conflicting priorities, think of sustainable business less as a marathon or sprint and more as a series of ascending steps—each step elevating your company’s sustainability capabilities. The goal is to build momentum and sustain it over time, a process that often requires new ways of working and a mindset shift across the organization.?

One strategic approach to this shift is OrbAid’s Company Sustainability Project Maturity Index.?

For ease of use, the index is built into OrbAid’s Greener Bottom Line Model, which visualizes five ascending levels of sustainability capabilities. Each level represents not only an advancement in sustainable business practices but also the potential for increasing profitability.?

Here’s a breakdown of the five levels of the Company Sustainability Project Maturity Index and the benefits each level offers:?

1. Abiders: These companies focus primarily on regulatory compliance. While this is necessary, it often results in missed opportunities for profit and growth. Compliance tends to add costs rather than create value, leaving businesses with a narrow focus on satisfying legal requirements.?

2. Satisfiers: Building on regulatory compliance, Satisfiers also respond to customer sustainability requirements through surveys, certifications, and small-scale actions. While this approach helps companies address customer expectations, it still adds net costs and leaves valuable sustainability data underutilized, representing untapped opportunities for green profit.?

3. Improvers: Improvers start to leverage sustainability data to eliminate excess material and energy waste from internal operations. This creates cost savings and operational efficiencies. However, since direct operations typically account for only 25% of a company’s total emissions, much of the sustainability opportunity—around 75%—remains unaddressed in the broader value chain.

4. Trailblazers: Trailblazers take sustainability to the next level by effectively scaling projects across the organization. They prioritize, sequence, and time their initiatives to deliver consistent, predictable returns on investment (ROI) and drive profits. These companies often lead their industries in innovation and sustainability.?

5. Multipliers: Multipliers extend their Trailblazing success by partnering with customers, suppliers, and broader business ecosystems. This collective approach helps meet sustainability targets, reshapes markets, and even creates new business models, ultimately driving more significant profitability through green initiatives.?

From Conservation to Expansion?

At a macro level, Abiders and Satisfiers focus on conserving enterprise value, while Trailblazers and Multipliers aim to expand it by leveraging sustainability as a growth engine.?

To assess your company’s position on the Sustainability Project Maturity Index, consider what drives leadership and team behavior. Are external stakeholders like regulators and customers pushing your company to act, or is the drive for sustainability coming from within, motivated by a desire to create a more profitable and sustainable business??

Ascending this maturity index takes time. But having this long-term goal in mind can clarify your sustainability journey and help your teams align around the mindset and strategies needed to achieve these milestones. It serves as a helpful north star, ensuring your company is on the path to both a greener and more profitable future.?

Looking for more in-depth resources to improve your company’s sustainability? ?

Click the link below to watch the how to video on Scaling Your Sustainability Plan and learn how to progress on the Company Sustainability Project Maturity Index, optimizing both your business profits and environmental impact.?