Why for you and your organisation?

How sustainable strategies can enhance organisational performance.

While there are clear ecological, social, and economic reasons to prioritise sustainable strategies, why is this important for you and your organisation? And how can you convince colleagues and stakeholders that this is a worthwhile pursuit?

Benefits of sustainability strategies

By implementing effective sustainability strategies, individuals, communities, and businesses can help to significantly reduce landfill and incineration waste, contribute to biodiversity, reduce pollution, avert climate change, and champion social and economic justice in their local and wider global communities. But doing so can also be good business.

Whether formally or informally, large-scale or grass-roots, implementing effective sustainability strategies has wide range of benefits to organisations themselves and the communities in which they operate.

Consumer choices can be driven by sustainability insights

Sustainability strategies is an essential business practice that helps to evaluate impacts and dependencies on nature and track action towards targets. It can help to work more efficiently towards sustainability targets, build trust, accountability, brand loyalty, and customer satisfaction, as added transparency allows stakeholders and investors to understand the environmental and social impacts of a business and its operations.

Consumers are increasingly choosing to invest with, and purchase from, companies who have strong environmental and social practices. Younger generations (Millennials and Gen Z) are known to make purchasing decisions based on their values and social and environmental justice concerns; reportedly many are willing to pay more for sustainable products and services. Investors are increasingly choosing companies and portfolios with strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments and performance (Gomes, S, et al. 2023).

However, this trend also raises concerns about the danger of greenwashing–where companies may exaggerate or falsely claim their sustainability efforts to appear more environmentally friendly than they truly are. Read the article if you’re interested in learning about the history of greenwashing, including examples of how companies mislead consumers about their environmental practices.

Cost savings

Effective recycling and waste management practices are a great example of how organisations can achieve significant cost savings. It is common for organisations to find that recycling and composting are far more cost-effective than traditional waste disposal methods, and there are increasingly financial incentives for recycling materials. By understanding their waste and recycling streams better, organisations can identify inefficiencies, streamline operations, reduce overall waste, and therefore also reduce the cost of waste management and disposal.

Regulatory requirements

It is becoming increasingly common for many jurisdictions to require ESG reporting and sustainability disclosures (the Australian Government, for example, in 2024 passed a law requiring sustainability reporting). Developing an effective sustainability reporting strategy can help organisations stay ahead of emerging regulations, avoid potential penalties, and reputational damage.

Driving community engagement and impact

An effective sustainability strategy within any organisation or community, needs to go beyond mandatory obligations and to be seen as more than just performative or building the bottom line. Sustainability strategies can have direct positive impacts on the communities in which organisations operate, promoting better labour practices, community engagement, creating jobs and supporting local initiatives, contributing to the long-term resilience and informed advocacy and decision-making of local communities, and can help build partnerships within the local communities to cocreate solutions to environmental and social justice concerns. By disclosing environmental and social impacts, organisations can also help to raise awareness of local issues and contribute to their solutions.

Community-driven sustainability in action!

Watch the video as Rachel and Barb introduce us to the The Ashy Eco Hub, a community-owned and managed not-for-profit organisation that provides various services to the local community, including recycling services and solutions.

This is an example of how recycling initiatives can engage communities. It highlights the importance of understanding community needs and building relationships with organisations, businesses, and government bodies to address those needs and work towards a more sustainable future.

The task may feel big, but the key to success is bringing communities and organisations together. By collaborating and asking for support, recycling and waste challenges can be overcome!

Do you know of any other local initiatives or communities in your area? Share examples and tell us how you think they’re making a difference!

References

_{Gomes, S, Lopes, JM & Nogueira, S 2023, ‘Willingness to pay more for green products: A critical challenge for Gen Z’, Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 390,}