The path to embedded sustainability

Businesses
seeking
to
accelerate

sustainability
initiatives
must
take
an
integrated
approach
that
brings
together
all
business
and
technology
functions.
Sustainability
is
no
longer
the
responsibility
of
only
the
chief
sustainability
officer
(CSO).
It
is
not
managed
by
a
single
department
in
a
silo.
Driving
true
sustainable
impact,
at
scale,
takes
place
when
an
enterprise
is
fully
aligned
to
that

transformation.
To
scale
progress
in
combating
climate
change,
this
alignment
and
collaboration
must
happen
across
value
chain
partners,
ecosystems,
and
industries.

Sustainability
and
ESG:
An
opportunity
for
synergy

Sustainability
and

ESG
are
not
synonymous.
While
ESG
seeks
to
provide
standard
methods
and
approaches
to
measuring
across
environmental,
social
and
governance
KPIs,
and
holds
organizations
accountable
for
that
performance,
sustainability
is
far
broader.
ESG
can
serve
as
a
vehicle
to
progress
sustainability
but
it
can
also
distract
from
the
urgent
need
of
combating
climate
change
and
working
toward
the

17
UN
SDGs.

As
we
have
seen
with
any
sort
of
external
reporting
liabilities,
this
type
of
accountability
does
drive
action.
It’s
our
responsibility
to
ensure
we
don’t
just
do
ESG
reporting
for
the
sake
of
reporting,
and
that
it
doesn’t
impede
actual
progress
in
sustainability.
We
must
ensure
ESG
progress
and
sustainability
are
driving
towards
a
common
goal.
The
reality
is
companies
might
be
ready
to
fund
ESG
initiatives,
but
not
as
ready
to
fund
‘sustainability’
initiatives.

If
designed
intentionally,
these
do
not
have
to
be
separate
initiatives.
When
something
is
‘regulatory,’
‘mandatory,’
or
‘involuntary,’
companies
have
no
choice
but
to
find
a
way.
A
pre-existing
sustainability
office
may
find
resources
or
funds
shifted
to
ESG,
or
a
reprioritization
of
targets
based
on
ESG
measurements.
However,
to
capture
both
the
business
value
behind
ESG
compliance
as
well
as
its
ability
to
drive
impact,
it
requires
a
holistic
approach
that
strategically
captures
these
synergies.
 

We
are
helping
our
clients
maximize
those
investments,
leveraging
the
requirements
of
ESG
to
drive
compliance
as
well
as
sustainability.
Our
clients
are
improving
their
ability
to
measure
and
track
progress
against
ESG
metrics,
while
concurrently
operationalizing
sustainability
transformation.

Maximizing
value
with
a
holistic
strategy

The
first
step
in
maximizing
that
dual
value
is
upfront
due
diligence.
It
is
necessary
to
assess
the
current
state
of
reporting
readiness,
the
alignment
between
ESG
requirements
and
voluntary
sustainability
initiatives,
and
any
consideration
on
how
to
drive
acceleration
with
future-proofed
solutions.
Questions
might
include:

• Where
  is
  the
  organization
  relative
  to
  its
  required
  and
  voluntary
  sustainability
  goals?
• Have
  the
  sustainability
  goals
  evolved
  in
  response
  to
  recent
  regulation
  or
  market
  shifts? 
• How
  aligned
  is
  the
  sustainability
  strategy
  to
  the
  business
  strategy? 
• Is
  ownership
  of
  delivering
  sustainability
  goals
  distributed
  throughout
  the
  organization
  or
  is
  every
  leader
  aware
  of
  how
  they
  are
  expected
  to
  contribute?
• How
  is
  sustainability
  managed—as
  an
  annual
  measuring
  exercise
  or
  an
  ongoing
  effort
  that
  supports
  business
  transformation?
• What
  regulations
  are
  owned
  by
  specific
  functional
  areas
  that
  may
  contribute
  to
  a
  broader
  ESG
  roadmap
  if
  viewed
  holistically?
• Are
  there
  in
  flight
  business
  or
  technology
  initiatives
  where
  I
  can
  embed
  these
  requirements?

Up
until
recently,
sustainability
was
most
likely
handled
by
one
central
team.
Now,
functional
areas
across
the
organization
are
recognizing
their
role
in
measuring
ESG
progress
as
well
as
their
opportunities
to
help
make
their
company
more
sustainable.
 

Similar
to
a
company
executing
any
corporate
strategy,
progress
is
made
when
the
organization
understands
it,
and
employees
are
aware
of
how
they
play
a
role
in
bringing
it
to
life.
All
leaders
must
enable
teams
and
departments
to
understand
how
sustainability
is
part
of
the
corporate
strategy.
They
must
provide
the
enablement
and
tools
so
these
teams
can
integrate
the
overarching
sustainability
purpose
and
objectives
within
the
corporate
strategy
into
their
respective
roles
in
accelerating
sustainable
outcomes.

I
see
a
clear
shift
in
companies
becoming
more
aware
that
they
must
work
across
departments
to
drive
sustainability.
A
company
cannot
report
on

scope
3
category
7
of
employee
commute
without
employee
data
from
HR
or
facilities
management
data,
or
without
the
technology
platform
and
data
governance
to
have
an
auditable
view
of
that
data.
Businesses
cannot
prove
there
is
no
forced
labor
in
their
supply
chain
without
working
with
procurement
to
understand
their
supplier
base,
where
they
are
located,
and
what
might
be
high
risk,
and
then
solution
to
embed
proactive
risk
management
in
vendor
onboarding. 

Embedding
sustainability
in
practice

Accountability
is
where
an
enterprise
can
ensure
that
sustainability
is
embedded
and
activated.
The
idea
of
embedding
is
integrating
it
into
the
day-to-day
role.
It’s
enabling
employees
to
make
informed
decisions
and
understanding
the
climate
impact
based
on
that
decision.
Any
business
or
investment
decision
has
a
profit
lever,
a
cost
lever,
and
sometimes
a
performance
lever,
such
as
an
Service
Level
Agreement
(SLA).
Now,
sustainability
can
be
a
lever
to
truly
embed
impact
into
everyday
operations.
Employees
can
make
more
sustainable
decisions
knowing
the
tradeoff
and
impact.

A
recent
study
from
the

IBM
Institute
for
Business
Value
surveyed
5,000
global
C-suite
executives
across
22
industries
to
find
out
why
sustainability
isn’t
generating
more
impact
for
organizations.
The
study
found
companies
were
just
“doing
sustainability,”
or
approaching
sustainability
as
a
compliance
task
or
accounting
exercise
rather
than
a
business
transformation
accelerator.

Executives
recognize
the
importance
of
data
to
achieve
sustainability
objectives;
82%
of
the
study’s
respondents
agree
that
high-quality
data
and
transparency
are
necessary
to
succeed.
However,
a
consistent
challenge
they
encounter
in
driving
both
ESG
reporting
and
sustainable
transformation
is
the
shared
reality
is
that

companies
cannot
manage
what
they
cannot
measure.

Data
not
only
provides
the
quantitative
requirements
for
ESG
metrics,
it
also
provides
the
visibility
to
manage
the
performance
of
those
metrics.
If
the
employees
of
a
company
don’t
have
the
data,
they
cannot
publish
financial
grade
reporting,
identify
opportunities
for
decarbonization,
or
validate
progress
towards
becoming
a
more
sustainable
company.

One
point
addressed
in
our
study
surrounds
the
data
specific
challenges
that
can
come
with
sustainability.
Findings
revealed
that
“despite
recognizing
the
link
between
data
and
sustainability
success,
only
4
in
10
organizations
can
automatically
source
sustainability
data
from
core
systems
such
as

ERP,

enterprise
asset
management,

CRM,

energy
management,
and

facilities
management.”

When
clients
embed
the
right
processes
and
organizational
accountability
across
ESG
reporting
and
sustainability,
they
can
make
sure
they
are
getting
the
right
information
and
data
into
the
hands
of
the
right
people,
often
system
owners.
Those
‘right
people’
can
now
make
more
informed
decisions
in
their
respective
roles
and
scale
transformation
from
one
team
to
the
entire
organization
while
also
incorporating
these
needs
of
ESG
data
capture,
collection,
and
ingestion
for
the
sake
of
both
reporting
and
operationalizing.

The
study
found
organizations
that
successfully
embedded
sustainability
approached
the
data
usability
challenge
through
a
firmer
data
foundation
and
better

data
governance.
The
criticality
of
a
clear
data
strategy
and
foundation
brings
us
to
our
final
topic:
how

generative
AI
can
further
accelerate
sustainability.

Utilizing
generative
AI
to
embed
sustainability

There
are
many
different
applications
for
generative
AI
when
it
comes
to
embedding
sustainability,
especially
when
it
comes
to
filling
in
data
gaps.
The
data
needed
for
ESG
and
sustainability
reporting
is
immense
and
complex.
Oftentimes,
companies
don’t
have
it
available
or
have
the
correct
protocols
to
align
their
data
and
sustainability
strategies.

Most
clients,
regardless
of
the
size
of
the
company,
have
sustainability
teams
that
are
stretched,
trying
to
manually
chase
data
instead
of
focusing
on
what
the
data
is
saying.
Generative
AI
can
unlock
productivity
potential,
accelerating
data
collection
and
ingestion
reconciliation.
As
an
example,
instead
of
sustainability
teams
manually
collecting
and
reviewing
paper
fuel
receipts,
technology
can
help
translate
receipt
images
into
the
necessary
data
elements
for
fuel-related
metrics.
This
allows
these
teams
to
spend
more
time
on
how
to
optimize
fuel
use
for
decarbonization,
using
time
for
data
insights
instead
of
time
chasing
the
data.

By
spending
all
your
time
on
reconciling
invoices
or
collecting
physical
fuel
receipts,
how
are
you
or
others
in
your
organization
going
to
have
the
time
to
understand
the
data
and
in
turn
make
changes
to
drive
sustainability?
If
time
is
spent
collecting
data
and
then
pulling
together
reports,
there
is
little
time
left
to
garner
actionable
insights
from
that
data
and
enact
change.
Systems
and
processes
must
be
in
place
so
that
an
organization
can
drive
sustainability
performance,
while
meeting
ESG
reporting
requirements,
and
not
use
all
of
its
resources
and
funding
on
data
management
that
provides
eventual
visibility
without
the
capacity
to
use
it
for
impact.

As
mentioned
in
the
study,
generative
AI
can
be
a
“game
changer
for
data-driven
sustainability,
enabling
organizations
to
turn
trade-offs
into
win-wins,
identify
improvement
opportunities,
and
drive
innovation
at
speed
and
scale.”
It
is
little
wonder
why
73%
of
surveyed
executives
say
they
plan
to
increase
their
investment
in
generative
AI
for
sustainability.

To
truly
leverage
the
power
of
generative
AI
tomorrow,
companies
must
first
understand
their
data
readiness
today.
Then,
we
can
prioritize
how
generative
AI
can
improve
existing
data
for
visibility
and
use
that
data
for
performance
insights.

Companies
can
identify
immediate
opportunities
for
generative
AI
to
help
them
move
faster,
while
concurrently
ensuring
that
the
core
data
collection
and
management
is
established
to
support
current
and
future
reporting
needs.
We
want
our
clients
to
focus
on
leveraging
ESG
reporting
to
have
a
return
on
investment
(ROI)
financially,
as
well
as
in
driving
sustainable
impact.
While
external
mandatory
requirements
will
be
a
driver
for
where
an
organization’s
budget
is
allocated,
organizations
can
intentionally
embed
sustainability
as
a
part
of
those
initiatives
to
capture
the
full
value
of
their
transformation
efforts.

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the
study:
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