Being a good corporate citizen has never been so challenging. Companies have long been under public scrutiny for practices ranging from recruitment to workplace safety, from attitudes to overseas investment to environmental pollution.
The emergence of climate change as a mainstream political issue, however, has served to drive home the breadth of ethical issues with which firms must now grapple. The business—and societal—implications of how companies address these are so far reaching that a new area of management practice has come into being to manage them, known by many as “corporate sustainability”.
Accordingly, grasping the nature and scope of the sustainability challenge—as well as best practice in addressing the attendant opportunities and risks—is of immense importance to the corporate community. However, this report suggests that companies are at an early stage in developing such an understanding.
While 53% of firms worldwide surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit claim to have a coherent sustainability policy, only half of these extend this beyond internal operations to encompass their supply chains. In all, less than one in three executives (29%) say their company has a coherent strategy that covers the whole business and its supply chain. Uncertainty also lingers as to whether sustainability can be seen as an opportunity, or if it is merely another drag on the bottom line.
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