Sixty per cent of major Western European and North American CEOs will see improving sustainability related performance as a top five priority by 2015, according to IT research firm Gartner.
According to Gartner analysts, in practical terms, the value in sustainability for most enterprises today is actually derived from operational efficiency and business enablement, while risk mitigation, focused on compliance, reputation and philanthropy is not their primary focus now.
Gartner said maturing set of information systems and decision support tools that facilitate the engagement of the CFO and the finance team will enable sustainability’s enhanced corporate value.
Gartner research vice president Simon Mingay said sustainability is no longer a ‘soft’ and tangential aspect to organisation performance.
"A sustainable approach to business activities is generating tangible business benefits for organizations today, through a combination of operational efficiencies and market growth opportunities," he added.
In order to achieve improved financial and operational performance, organizations should optimise the use of increasingly expensive natural resources, minimise the value lost through waste and emissions, and exploit the increasing fiscal incentives and tax breaks.
Gartner said business enablement is achieved by exploiting the emerging market opportunities of a low-carbon economy.
Organisations need to make better-informed decision to meet the expectations of investors, customers, employees and other key stakeholders.
Gartner analysts said information-enabled processes and technologies will be a key enabler in achieving all these elements, providing a lens into organisational performance that is highly fragmented.
"For many consumer-facing and resource-intensive industry sectors, we anticipate a steady shift in the strategic intent of sustainability from operational efficiency to more of a core capability directly impacting products and services," Mingay said.
"Although many CFOs have historically been skeptical of the financial or business enablement value of sustainability, volatile and escalating resource costs — most notably, energy costs — along with changing customer, consumer and investor expectations in many developed economies, are changing the value equation."
While IT can continue to improve its own energy efficiency, the much bigger opportunity is applying IT to analyze, optimize, manage and otherwise improve the sustainability performance of the business itself.
Recurring themes continue to include the easy and obvious, such as the use of remote-collaboration tools for travel substitution, and increased building utilization and efficiency, workplace management and remote working.
"One factor that has limited the traction of sustainability programs by the CFO and finance team, in particular, has been the lack of frameworks, systems and tools, which expose sustainability-related performance data and practices, provide decision support, and connect sustainability performance to financial performance," Mingay said.
"Such tools enable the CFO and the finance team to bring to bear their analytical skills on the issue of sustainability, and assist in making better-informed and more-balanced decisions that include the evaluation of sustainability and risk in the decision-making process."
