SUSTAINABILITY SPECIAL
SUSTAINABLE PLANNING
Extinction Rebellion, Greta Thunberg
Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in manufacturing boardrooms
across the UK, research has found – and it’s being driven by customer pressure
CONTRIBUTOR INENCO
and plastic bag bans have all seen
sustainability thrust into the public
conscience in a bigger way than ever
before in recent years. Now, according
to a survey conducted by Manufacturing
Management and energy consultancy, Inenco,
those attitudes are starting to have an impact on
the way manufacturers operate.
An impressive 92% of MM readers say that
sustainability is ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to
their businesses, with an even higher percentage
(97%) saying its profi le is increasing internally.
This, says Lee Knott, corporate sales director at
Inenco, represents a dramatic shift in business
attitudes. “In my 30 years of being in industry,
I have never known an investment plan or
board-level strategy that hasn’t been fi nancially
orientated – until now,” he says.
“For the fi rst time in my entire
career, many of our customers
are investing in something
that doesn’t necessarily give
them an instant ROI. We’re
now at a very important
infl ection point, both for the
planet and for businesses.
Normally, businesses respond
to regulation or fi nancial return,
but now their customers are
driving the agenda.”
A boardroom discussion
This increased public pressure
has helped push sustainability
onto the tables of CEOs and
board members, with 39% of
respondents saying that senior
management is responsible
for developing sustainability
initiatives in their organisation
(compared to 59% saying it
falls on the safety, health &
environment department to do
so). “The way industry is talking
about sustainability has changed
dramatically in the past 10
years,” says Inenco’s operations
director, Sam Davidson. “Now,
the conversation is increasingly
being had at board level, with
the CFO and energy managers;
it’s much more about actually
making a diff erence rather
than just trying to fl uff up what
you’re already doing in some
sort of ‘greenwash’.”
Lee Knott,
corporate sales
director, Inenco
Such is the growing
importance of sustainability,
Knott expects its infl uence on
the boardroom to become even
greater, predicting that the
current 39% of CEOs involved
in it will become “more like
79%” in a year’s time.
More evidence for this is
off ered by the fact that even
those at the top who may still
roll their eyes at the idea of
becoming more sustainable are
starting to come round. “Not
everyone is on board yet, but
even then, while they may not
be bought into it, they know
they have to do something
about it,” says Knott. “I have
yet to see a customer that
hasn’t wanted to talk to me
about sustainability.”
Understanding why
For many of the survey’s
respondents, regulatory
compliance is a major
driver behind increased
sustainability. Almost half
(46%) of those who answered
the question said that meeting
the plethora of environmental
targets is a key part of their
sustainability agenda. In
addition, 72% said that their
corporate reputation was a
driver for sustainability, with
53% doing so to meet changing
customer expectations.
How important is sustainability to your organisation?
35%
Important
8%
Not
particularly
important
58%
Very
important
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