The conversations surrounding sustainability are increasingly growing more frequent and audible. With each passing year, companies, employees, consumers — and to some degree even shareholders and stakeholders — are amplifying their commitment to doing the right thing. It’s showing up in new types of business structures (B-Corps), the addition of sustainability positions within organizations, increased […]
Many organizations today know sustainability is the right thing to do — sooner versus later. The issue often lies in how and where to get started. Right now, you can probably identify so many areas of your company where sustainability initiatives could make a major difference. Yet lack of manpower, funds, or even just a […]
Designing products always involves a plethora of specific requirements and restrictions, but perhaps nothing is quite as challenging as when you are tasked with reinventing existing products with the specific challenge of making them more sustainable. With everything from water bottles to single-serve coffee pods, imagine that your customers don’t need you to reinvent the […]
Sustainability is, undoubtedly, top of mind for many stakeholders — not the least of which is the consumer. More and more consumers are, in fact, realizing they can vote with their wallets by supporting the companies and organizations who are doing the right thing for people and the planet. And companies around the world are […]
Companies implementing sustainability measures need to set goals in order to measure progress. Of course, the desire for success toward sustainability efforts may mean a company will set easily achievable goals in order to demonstrate to stakeholders and shareholders they are indeed moving the needle. But do easily achievable goals motivate an organization to do […]
One of the keys in looking at sustainability from a macro perspective is in tipping industries along the wheel of change. Demonstrating the business case for generating shared value starts the wheel moving. Most people and businesses tend to focus the majority of their short-term attention on their own well being, and this “me” and […]
So many companies today prefer to maintain the status quo in terms of product design and operations. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is often the mentality in boardrooms, where the pursuit of profit is often more important than the purpose of sustainability. Through many conversations in our Business of Sustainability interview series, I’ve […]
The sustainability conversation occurs much more frequently in boardrooms these days; however, more often than not, the focus is on how much a company needs to invest to do the right thing versus what the payoffs will be in both the short and long term. In looking back at our Business of Sustainability interview series, […]
The United States has large-scale sports and entertainment arenas in nearly every major city, yet rarely do we consider the scope 3 emissions associated with the daily operation of such a building. When you consider the transportation of people, equipment, performers or teams, supplies, and more to and from the structure — not to mention […]
In February 2021 Convoy surveyed 474 small and mid-sized trucking companies across the United States to collect a snapshot of sustainability in trucking. Survey participants include dispatchers for fleets and owner-operators. All the results are self reported by the participants. Survey highlights include key trends in trucking and new data insights: 36% of carriers feel […]
It’s one thing to be an organization looking to incorporate sustainability practices into your own operations. But it’s an entirely different story when you are a ubiquitous retail operation with a goal of enrolling pretty much every organization in your supply chain to become more sustainable as well. I was quite impressed when I learned […]
In October of 2020 we surveyed 122 transportation professionals about the importance of sustainability to their businesses. Our results confirmed the importance of sustainability in the transportation industry – and shed light on some interesting themes. More than 80% of respondents from companies such as The Home Depot, Molson Coors, and Nestlé said that sustainability […]
There’s a funny thing that happens when a company’s mission and purpose is tied to sustainability and social responsibility from ground zero. This commitment to doing the right thing, to being environmentally aware, to helping communities and empowering people often becomes as esteemed as the product you are selling. Consumers want to do business with […]
When you think about a company which produces metal and glass, the concept of recycling is practically a given. Glass and metals are among the world’s most recycled materials, while aluminum is, in fact, actually one of the most efficiently recycled materials. I recently met with John Sadlier, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ardagh Group. Ardagh […]
As corporations doing business, we all, for the most part, want to do the right thing. But if no one is paying for sustainability or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts or no one sees business value or an ROI for the cost of implementing these practices, they will become even more difficult to achieve. I […]
Prior to the onset of COVID, tourism came under fire for the impact it was having on destinations. Many locations like Venice, Machu Picchu, Amsterdam, Iceland, and the Galapagos Islands were working to restrict tourism because of the negative impact the high numbers of visitors were having on the local community. Yet, as with any […]
Global supply chains represent an opportunity to take coordinated action against the sustainability risks associated with increasing consumer demand for products and improved lifestyles. This list of supply chain sustainability frontrunners are taking the lead in measuring and improving their impact on the environment and on the communities that work to make their businesses successful. […]
When organizations begin to incorporate sustainability practices, they must recognize it is a journey. Sustainability is not something to be done once and checked off the “to do” list. It is an ever-evolving process which flows throughout an organization and delves deeper into the fabric of a company with each passing year. Sustainable practices are […]
As we continue to delve deeper into the business of sustainability, we wanted to talk about “sustainable mobility” — everything that moves within an organization. This includes last-mile delivery (the movement of goods from a transportation hub to the final delivery destination), workers commuting on a daily basis, customer travel to stores, etc. One company […]
Absolutely every company in business today has the ability to become more sustainable — it’s an undeniable fact. Organizations can implement basic steps like reducing paper use, incentivizing employees to use public transportation, and switching to LED lighting, or they can take a much deeper dive and look into product sourcing, how their manufacturing processes […]