Corporate sustainability targets have yet to be embraced by managers and senior executives in most companies, according to a global survey of over 1,100 executives by the Economist Intelligence Unit. It shows that social and environmental goals, such as improving energy efficiency or enforcing ethical practices across supply chains, are not typically included as part of executives’ overall responsibilities.
Six out of ten executives polled noted that they or their team had been given no specific sustainability goals to achieve.
The findings are revealed in “Action or Aspiration: Sustainability in the workplaceâ€, a new report written by the EIU and sponsored by BT that indicates that although corporate sustainability is now a major issue for top executives, companies are struggling to translate this into action across a globally dispersed workforce.
While firms agree that they should do more to embed sustainable processes into their day to day operations, two-thirds of respondents have not been consulted by their companies regarding how sustainability issues can be integrated into their roles.
The survey covered senior executives across a wide range of industries, while the EIU also conducted in-depth interviews with business leaders around the world, to understand the challenges that companies face in implementing their strategy for corporate sustainability.
“The link between sustainability and commercial success is, without doubt, becoming clearer all the time,†said Francois Barrault, CEO, BT Global Services. He added that the key to helping sustainability programmes benefit society, the environment and profitability is leadership.
“All organisations, BT included, are at the start of this journey, but now is the time for CEOs and CFOs to lead from the front.”
The study also concluded that there is still more talk than action. Between a quarter and one third of respondents felt that there was “more talk than action†when it comes to implementing sustainability strategies. Where action is taken, it tends to be in areas that directly and obviously affect customer perceptions and sales.
There is also clear involvement in sustainability at the top of the company, but less engagement at lower levels. Almost three-fifths of respondents agreed that management sets the pace, with 37% saying that direction comes from board level. Almost one-third of respondents say that their chairman or CEO is responsible for the company’s sustainability policies. Getting a clear signal from the top can be vital when it comes to implementation and galvanising staff. But the survey also shows that the amount of interaction with the person leading any sustainability efforts tends to shrink further down the management hierarchy. While the majority of board-level executives say they collaborate with the sustainability chief, only one third of junior managers do so.
Finally, the survey found that sustainability helps to attract talent, but not as much as money or location. For all the talk about a firm’s sustainability efforts giving it an edge in recruitment, this metric was at the bottom of the list of what executives seek in a new job, far behind the scope of the role, location, pay and several other factors. However, it was listed as a “very important†consideration for some 32% of survey respondents.
The survey sample was very senior: all hailed from management functions, with nearly 60% CEOs and other C-level executives. One in three respondents (34%) were based in Western Europe, 27% were from Asia-Pacific and 21% from
Action or Aspiration: Sustainability in the workplace is available, free of charge, at www.eiu.com/sponsor/BT/ActionorAspiration .
