Sustainability in Europe – 4 top trends 2017
We look at the top trends and issues now and in the coming years for sustainable business
In just eight weeks’ time over 500 leading CEOs, sustainability, communication, ESG and compliance professionals will meet in London at our 16th Annual Responsible Business Summit Europe. As part of the knowledge exchange in the build-up to our global Responsible Business Series, we reached out to the Ethical Corporation community to get an understanding of top trends and issues both now and for the coming years.
Through original research, our new Global Responsible Business Trends 2017 report will outline the key opportunities, foci and strategies of nearly 2,500 business professionals. The full report will be published next month and will be available to Ethical Corp Subscribers.
We’ve segmented some of our responses and presented them in a 11-page snapshot trends report that highlight some key findings from our European respondents. The below gives an overview of 4 key trends highlighted by our European community:
- The impact of Brexit: We wanted to gauge our community’s response to the impact that Brexit will have on their organisation’s sustainability activities. Many stated Brexit will create unnecessary work and uncertainties and will have a negative impact on sustainability investment decisions.
- Sustainability is driving revenues: Just under 56% of executives polled stated that sustainability is driving revenue for their business.
- Sustainability as a source of competitive advantage: 21% of our respondents indicated sustainability as a source of competitive advantage as the single most exciting opportunity for their organisation in 2017.
- A tightening of sustainability budgets: Just 25% of respondents stated their sustainability budgets will increase in 2017. This is a fall of 1% on last year’s findings. A further 35% stated their budgets won’t increase in 2017, a rise of 3% from 2016’s report. It would appear that recent events have impacted organisations’ investments in sustainability activities.
The full 11-page report is available as a free download here
Key issues and opportunities in this report were echoed over the past few months in our routine conversations with leading business practitioners. These opportunities and issues form the key focus at the upcoming 16th Annual Responsible Business Summit Europe, which is taking place in London on 7-8 June 2017.
The summit is Europe’s leading responsible and sustainable business event, featuring over 500 leading business executives from the likes of; Dell, BASF, SC Johnson, Unilever, Aviva, ING, Pirelli, Ikea, Mars, EU commission, PRI, Hermes Investment, Dunkin’ Brands, Kimberly Clark to name a few. If you find the content of this white paper useful, then please do take a look at the conference here
Sources: http://ethicalcorp.com/sustainability-europe-4-top-trends-2017