profitable sustainability

Our focus on value includes value linked to emerging trends and business challenges that can deliver economic, social and environmental benefits. This enables us to assist clients to optimise value across all three areas for each of the company’s key sustainability concerns.

Typical profitable sustainability engagements for Lavery Pennell are:

  • Development of profitable sustainability strategies
  • Benchmark analysis
  • Design of sustainability enablers and implementation plans to help clients to achieve their sustainability goals
  • Designing solutions to achieve tough sustainability targets (e.g. taking a site carbon neutral; finding billion dollar sustainability-related revenue growth opportunities)
  • Strategic due diligence, especially on innovative clean technologies and business models
  • Growth and turnaround strategies for cleantech businesses

We use a conventional definition of sustainability: “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” first publicised by the Brundtland Commission in 1987. For most companies, the needs of the present include hitting short term financial targets, while the needs of future generations are seen to include social and environmental care. Many companies think that the two are incompatible; we have proven that they are not.

In over 40 sustainability and low carbon projects completed by our team members we have found that companies can both increase their profits while improving their environmental and social impacts. For example, well-designed sustainability programs can unlock value through cost reduction, new products, new markets, enhancing brand, improving regulator relations/licence to operate, risk reduction, security/prioritisation of supply, employee engagement/retention/attraction, and raising barriers for competitors.

From our experience we have developed five principles for successful, profitable sustainability strategies:

  1. Issues tackled must be RELEVANT and common sense. Every company faces a unique range of economic, social and environmental challenges and a sustainability strategy will be most effective if it tackles the most relevant challenges for its situation.
  2. Sustainability must add VALUE for the organisation. Sustainability strategies have the best chance of success if they deliver both financial returns and environmental/social benefits.
  3. Build the CASE FOR CHANGE. Benefits (both financial/tangible and intangible) need to be demonstrated when seeking support for a sustainability strategy.
  4. Sustainability should become part of BUSINESS AS USUAL over time. Sustainability encourages good business practice and as such, needs to be embedded into everyday business processes.
  5. LEAD, don’t follow. A company will be most effective if it develops a relevant sustainability strategy that meets its own agenda — awards and indices are shaped by best corporate practice, not the other way around. We have also found that compliance approaches are ineffective at unlocking the value available.

Please refer to our paper “Sustainability: the HOW” for details on how to successfully and profitably improve the sustainability of an organisation.