Sustainability 2.0: Using sustainability to drive business innovation and growth

Sustainability can be a game changer. It can drive innovation by introducing new design constraints that shape how key resources— energy, carbon, water, materials and waste—are used in products and processes. It can also suggest areas where innovation can pay off especially well. These five resources are ubiquitous throughout an organization’s supply chain, and the potential to boost efficiency and cut costs across these resources is significant.

Sustainability-driven innovation goes beyond designing green products and packaging solely on their inherent virtue. It entails improving business operations and processes to become more efficient, with a goal of dramatically reducing costs and waste. It’s also about insulating a business from the risk of resource price shocks and shortages. Taken together these enhancements can deliver business benefits that go far beyond the bottom line—whether it’s improving the overall carbon footprint, enhancing the brand image or engaging employees in a more profound way.

Often, there are significant opportunities for organizations to use sustainability to drive innovation and improve how they do business. A methodical analysis can highlight areas ripe for attention. Taking it a step further, that analysis may yield even greater benefits if it is extended beyond the company’s own walls through collaboration with suppliers, customers and alliance partners. Changes to each link in the supply chain can affect everything upstream and downstream and create financial benefits for everyone involved.

To reach this new frontier, leading organizations are taking a hard look inside their operations and across their supply chains, assessing where they are, prioritizing initiatives, and then formulating a broad sustainability strategy to foster product and process innovation to achieve their goals. They are also adopting metrics that more accurately measure their progress and improve their image in the marketplace. Companies that achieve this vision have the opportunity to enhance revenue and brand value, engage effectively with key stakeholders, manage risks and reduce costs.

To learn more, read the complimentary article reprint “Sustainability 2.0: Using sustainability to drive business innovation and growth” in Deloitte Review, Issue 10, January 2012. The article is also available for reading online.

Integrating the Business Reporting Supply Chain

High-quality business reporting lies at the heart of strong capital markets and sustainable economic growth. All those involved in the business reporting supply chain play a critical role in making business reports more relevant, understandable and reliable. This will enable the various stakeholders who use those reports to make informed decisions with respect to an organization’s social, environmental, and economic performance.

Recent interviews with key business leaders from around the globe capture recommendations on governance, financial reporting, financial auditing, and broader business reporting from prominent preparers, directors, auditors, standard setters, regulators and investors. This report analyzes what, according to interviewees, the various participants in the business reporting supply chain should do to further improve governance and the usefulness of business reports, as well as the preparation and audit of those reports. Unless otherwise stated, the recommendations in this report apply to all organizations and businesses. (For more information, read the March 2011 IFAC report Integrating the Business Reporting Supply Chain.)

Taking on the World – Positioning Canadian Private Companies for Global Success

To gain an understanding of the growing trend to global expansion and gauge what Canadian private companies are up against in foreign markets, KPMG undertook its second annual national survey to explore Canadian private companies’ success. Private company executives were asked about their current experiences and future plans for expansion. The KPMG report documents the extent of private companies' foreign operations to date; sheds light on the benefits of global expansion for private companies, and the key challenges and risks of doing so; and provides information about local employee and supply resources in foreign markets. (Read the KPMG report Taking on the World – Positioning Canadian Private Companies for Global Success.)

Five Tips for Effective Use of Social Media

Integrating social media into a company's marketing strategy helps to keep in touch with current and potential customers as well as with suppliers, colleagues and other stakeholders. The Business Development Bank of Canada offers a brief overview of social media, including the individual benefits of these sites, and lists five handy tips for effective use. (Read the online article Putting a new spin on networking.)

Fraud Risk in Difficult Economic Times

A new publication by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) is designed to help boards of directors protect their companies from the increased risk of fraud in today’s unsettled economic environment. The Director Alert, titled Fraud Risk in Difficult Economic Times, provides guidance to directors on how to satisfy themselves that management has implemented reasonable and prudent measures to manage the risk of both internal and external fraud. External fraud includes losses from frauds by suppliers, customers and others outside the company. Internal frauds are committed by those within an organization, whether management or employees, and may include asset misappropriation, corruption or financial statement fraud. (Read the CICA Media Release and review the Director Alert, titled Fraud Risk in Difficult Economic Times.)

Reputation risk management on the rise

Corporate reputations have never been more valuable or vulnerable. Recent scandals, new concerns about sustainability, global supply chains that multiply risk and social media that carry bad news at the click of a mouse are all elements of the new risk environment. However, the very same factors that add to reputation risk — social media, globalization and customers who care about social responsibility — can, if managed appropriately, help companies build a resilient reputation. More companies are starting to manage reputation risk proactively. In a recent survey of 131 companies by the Conference Board Reputation Risk Research Working Group, 81% of respondents said they have increased their attention to this area over the past three years, and 63% expect their spending on reputation risk to increase over the next three. (Read the article Reputation risk management on the rise in the August 2009 issue of CAmagazine.)