More about our sustainable business work
Our sustainable business work is about helping pioneering businesses succeed through sustainability. We believe the next wave of corporate sustainability will be innovating new business models that achieve commercial success by delivering social value within environmental limits. Our work on sustainable business supports Forum’s ambition to transform the food, energy and finance systems.
Sustainability has become a business issue for leading companies, as demonstrated by the fact that they have maintained high levels of commitment through the recession. They are embedding it deeper into a range of functions and are addressing more specific issues (for example, moving from ‘climate change’ to ‘adaptation in Californian orange groves’).
However, even leading companies are reaching the limits of what they can do by themselves. They face a variety of barriers, some common (for instance, the pressure from shareholders for short-term returns) others specific to a sector.
We believe they will respond in two ways. They will innovate to develop new products, services and, increasingly, business models. We aim to demonstrate with leading organisations that it is possible to develop business models that decouple financial growth from environmental and social impact.
We believe they will also collaborate to change the business environment in which they operate so that it rewards their leadership on sustainability. We are bringing key players together from across supply chains to tackle shared problems and plan action to manage the risks and seize the opportunities in global challenges such as climate change, resource shortages and population growth – for example in our Sustainable Shipping Initiative.
We work with global leaders like Unilever, M&S and AkzoNobel who understand that they can gain commercial success by creating a sustainable future. We help companies and public sector organisations on their sustainability change journeys in three ways:
- We use futures and strategy techniques to help companies develop robust, long-term plans. We’ve helped companies such as Unilever and PepsiCo identify the risks and opportunities ahead and plan action to future-proof their business.
- We support innovation of products, services and business models. We worked with ICI Paints AkzoNobel to create Dulux Ecosure, an award-winning paint with half the carbon and water footprint of standard ranges.
- We help companies embed change. We’ve met O2’s board regularly to advise on its sustainability programme, built the capacity of its project managers, and run part of its training programme for high flyers.
We turn these our experiences into stories, frameworks, lessons learnt and more so that all organisations around the world can put sustainability at their heart.
Be part of the next wave of corporate sustainability
If you are interested in how we can help your company or public sector organisation succeed through sustainability then please contact David Bent.
