Sustainability and business - no longer an unlikely match

Key Points

• The Institute has published its latest leadership paper, 'Integrating sustainability into business practices: a case study approach'
• The paper provides five case studies of organisations' journeys toward sustainable business practice
• The research shows that returns on investment are being gained earlier than budgeted.

Organisations are realising the importance of integrating their financial and environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance into one suite of key stakeholder information, research from the Institute’s latest leadership paper shows.

Integrating sustainability into business practices: a case study approach provides examples of sustainable business practice. The organisations we talked to are:

• Blackmores
• Intrepid Travel
• NIWA
• Woolworths
• World Vision Australia.

The organisations vary in size, industry and structure; therefore there are a mix of similarities and differences between how they practice corporate sustainability.

What is collectively agreed on, however, is that making the journey towards a more sustainable business is providing faster financial returns than originally budgeted, as the payback periods have been shorter than originally forecasted.

The Institute’s Manager Sustainability and Regional Australia, Geraldine Magarey, said: 'Managers are realising that to ensure the long-term viability of their organisation, there needs to be a commitment to achieving higher levels of sustainability performance.

'By changing the thinking within an organisation, by taking the 'low-hanging fruit' - the quick wins - an organisation can get employees engaged,’ Ms Magarey said.

The paper was launched at our Melbourne Business Forum on 24 May 2011.

Article last updated 31 May 2011