01 Jun Corporate Sustainability Performance Has Increased Worldwide

Sustainability practices are clearly not a passing trend – incorporating sustainability into your business plan is essential for the future of the planet and is crucial for companies that want to remain competitive. Now, it seems that corporations worldwide are getting on the same page. Oekom Research has found that, for the first time, signs indicate that global corporate sustainability has experienced overall improvement, according to their Corporate Responsibility Review 2017.

Companies are eager to integrate sustainability into their business practices after multiple examples hit the news of customers and stakeholders actively dropping brands that failed in the realm of sustainability. Companies that create plastics and items that are hard to recycle have found it necessary to jumpstart several different sustainability initiatives in order to offset public perception of their brand. These aren’t the only factors that have influenced the substantial change: according to the study, the pressure to make significant changes came from many sources. These sources include tightening national regulations, increasing demand for sustainable markets, and the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs).

In the report it is revealed that the percentage of “mid-rated companies” (those that have implemented rudimentary sustainability management systems) has increased from 35.8% in 2015 to 40.1% in 2016, a huge boost for just one year. The countries with the highest amount of “better-rated companies” are ranked in the following order: France, Germany, the UK, the US, and Sweden.

Automobile manufacturers and producers of household products are the top business sectors leading the industry rankings in corporate sustainability. The Oekom Carbon Risk Rating shows that significant progress is still needed in order to achieve global climate goals set forth by the SDGs. However, this year’s report proves that global businesses are definitively moving in the right direction.

It’s never too late for companies to rethink their business strategies and make changes in their operations – in the current era of sustainability awareness, now is the perfect time to start. Consider partnering with Good360 to introduce your unsold products and goods back into the circular economy. We connect companies to nonprofits and victims of natural disasters so your products never go to waste.
Source: http://www.justmeans.com/blogs/corporate-sustainability-performance-improves-worldwide

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Richard Barney, Good360’s EVP of Partnerships, is responsible for working closely with corporate partners to create programs that help them do good, better. Richard brings years of business-to-business sales and leadership experience to the nonprofit world and is tasked with ensuring that corporate partners realize a strong ROI from their partnership with Good360.