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Adding value to your business by going beyond basic compliance
To those who are just starting out, sustainability or corporate social responsibility (CSR) may be viewed as a business expense. However, the investment pays dividends in the long term.
In 2014, UNEP counted over two hundred academic reports which demonstrate positive and statistically significant relationships between sustainability performance and financial performance. The amount of case studies of CSR success has only grown since that study.
A business case is generally a cost to benefit ratio, so first, let's talk about the benefits.
The business benefits generally fall into seven types. By clicking on each summary below, you will see a selection of actual studies and statistics that illustrate the real business value. This is far from an exhaustive list, but should be good fodder to make your own internal case!
When instituting any new initiative, costs can be grouped into design, implementation, and operation. For CSR, the most investment (both time and money) is usually in the first two, design and implementation, such as establishing and agreeing an action plan or installing and commissioning a new technology.
Operational costs are generally negligible as CSR should be embedded into existing responsibilities and procedures rather than as a bolt-on initiative. Meanwhile, operational costs across the company reduce, including energy, materials, HR, and avoiding fines. This reduced cost, plus improved competitiveness due to the many reasons above, create a clear business case and a more successful business overall.
CSR is not one-size-fits-all, so no one can provide one CSR business case that applies to all businesses. To develop your own business case, it's important to understand which benefits you're most looking to gain (e.g. through Our Sustainability Roadmap), then you can identify the CSR actions that will best achieve those, and their specific cost. For example, an efficiency measure may be great for cost reduction, but might not be as engaging for your employees and customers.
Small and medium businesses (SMBs) can often feel limited by their size, which limits the resources, budget and expertise available to implement CSR. However, they often have an advantage over large businesses in implementing CSR due to:
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