Sustainability has become a mainstream business topic, one that is at or near the top of a C-suite agenda at most enterprises globally, across every industry. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) approaches have evolved significantly over the past few years, fueled by interest from various stakeholder groups, including investors, regulators, customers and consumers, and employees. There is now a profound sense of urgency of taking steps to ensure the longevity of the planet thrusting the corporate world into the center of action.
The promising news is many organizations are responding to the pressure to act by looking at sustainability primarily as a competitive differentiator and secondarily as a cost or reputational risk factor. This enables them to infuse sustainability into their strategic decision-making process and objectives to increase their operational and financial performance. As sustainability becomes an integral part of an organization's business strategies, CXOs are applying a more deliberate, materiality-driven lens on ESG topics that have the greatest impact on their organization's enterprise value.