Author name: External Article

Once viewed as a costly exercise, sustainability is being embraced by a growing number of retailers as a strategy that delivers cost savings and satisfies the demands of consumers.

Companies are exploring automation tools to reduce the amount of packaging used, trying to find alternatives to plastic, and looking to install solar panels to reduce their carbon footprint.

With the rise of the conscious consumer, more ecommerce retailers are putting the time and the effort into making sure they have more sustainable practices. Some have found it can be the decider between a customer buying off their site or a competitor’s.

To chart a more sustainable path and manage the increased consumer scrutiny of their business practices, retailers are also hiring more professionals whose main responsibility is to manage the ethical side of the business. Others are embedding sustainable practices into their DNA.

Today’s executives are dealing with a complex and unprecedented brew of social, environmental, market, and technological trends. These require sophisticated, sustainability-based management. Yet executives are often reluctant to place sustainability core to their company’s business strategy in the mistaken belief that the costs outweigh the benefits. On the contrary, academic research and business experience point to quite the opposite.

Embedded sustainability efforts clearly result in a positive impact on business performance. Drawing from our own research and our colleagues’ research in this area, we have created a sustainability business case for the 21st century corporate executive. Hoping to alleviate their concerns, this article also provides concrete examples of how sustainability benefits the bottom line.