Corporate Sustainability -- Advice For Fortune Readers -- It’s Not a “Choice”

Two McKinsey managers present a commentary for Fortune readers -- corporate executives, board members, managers -– corporate sustainability is now critical to your business.  Cited: a McKinsey survey of 340 executives; 90% of respondents initiated their sustainability journey based on risk management concerns.  Authors Jeremy Oppenheim and Martin Stuchtey present brief examples of corporate benefits of sustainability efforts (a brewing company, water utility, China-based industrial), and examples of WalMart Stores, Nike, Unilever, DuPont sustainability initiatives.  These explain the important “how” of the companies’ efforts.

Sustainability, they write, is a “crucial competitive tool” for the corporation today.  Managements are, after saying “yes” (let’s start our journey) and then setting priorities, deciding on targets, estimating costs and looking at incentives (including CEO compensation).   But on setting targets – McKinsey looked at S&P 500 companies, and while the majority now publish sustainability reports, only 1-in-5 companies have long-term goals in place even though execs consider sustainability among their top 3 concerns. (G&A Institute looks at S&P 500 reporting each year; our most recent finding is that 75% of the companies now publish reports.  The content of course is as varied as the body of companies that comprise this important and most widely-used investing benchmark.)

This is just a sample of some of the articles from this weeks SustainabilityHQ Highlights.  You can view the full Highlights by using the following links. Sustainability | ESG, Highlights for the Week of October 7,2015