MARCH 2020 STRATEGY
Sam Davidson,
operations
director, Inenco
This marks an important tipping point, says
Knott. “Take any cardboard box; printed on it
will be a triangle that shows it’s recyclable. This
was driven by market pressure: the market said,
‘you must use recycled material’. We’re right on
the tipping point – large companies tend to be
making a lot of noise about their sustainability
programmes, but smaller ones are yet to catch
up. Part of our job at Inenco is to help the boards
of our customers – of all sizes – understand their
sustainability credentials so that they’ve actually
got something to shout about. That will help
them with employee retention and employee
attraction. Millennials are going to be looking for
sustainability as a key criterion for a place to work.”
Forming a strategy
In order to understand sustainability, however,
it’s important to have a direction of travel. For all
the talk of increased awareness of the importance
of sustainable manufacturing, and its place on
the boardroom agenda, it may come as a surprise
that our respondents were split almost 50/50 as to
whether they have a formal sustainability agenda
in place. For the 44% who admitted to not having
a plan, Davidson warns that this is a risky strategy.
“The bow wave of consumer pressure, investor
pressure, supply chain pressure, and more
importantly, environmental pressure itself is now
overwhelming, to a point where organisations
cannot not have a sustainability policy if they
want to survive in what is, ultimately, a consumerled
world,” he says.
Even the 56% who said they do have a strategy
in place should be careful not to rest on their
laurels, warns Davidson. “Do those 56% actually
have a sustainability strategy, or are they doing
sustainability actions? The two are very different.
We see a lot of customers that think they’re doing
things to help the environment – and they are –
but they’re tactical activities, not set to a strategy.”
Those respondents who do have a strategy in
place were split as to how long-term it should be,
with 41% saying they’re looking three years into
the future, and 36% planning for the next five to
10 years. For Inenco, it doesn’t matter how far
ahead your plan runs, as long as you have one.
“It’s often difficult to get everyone in a room and
do a workshop around what to do,” continues
Davidson. “At Inenco, we help organisations form
a strategy. People get hung up on should we have
a strategy for a year or two years or five years. The
important thing is to have a strategy - what do
you want to achieve? Have a strategy, have some
science-based targets behind that strategy, and
then work out what realistically, the timescale
is to achieve that. We are seeing more and more
companies work towards two- and three-year
environmental strategies, which become an
integral part of the business’s overall strategy. The
things to think about are: what can we do? Where
do we want to get to? And finally, how do we get
that to become ‘business as usual’?”
Sponsored by:
Get the foundations right
Before you rush out and
start planning a water-tight
environmental sustainability
strategy, however, it’s important
to note that well over half (57%)
of respondents to the survey
said that access to funding
was the key thing hindering
the uptake of a sustainability
agenda. Both ‘a lack of internal
alignment’ and ‘a lack of clear
objectives’ followed, with just
a quarter of the respondents
identifying each as an issue.
Davidson says, however,
that the funding won’t happen
without getting the internals
right first. “In many ways,
funding comes secondary; once
you’ve got a strategy, then you
can look at funding,” he explains.
“Environmental policy will cover
people, technology and process.
Having a strategy will help you
identify how you can affect your
environmental policy in the
short, medium and long-term.”
From here, Davidson
continues, funding for new
machinery or infrastructure
upgrades will naturally follow.
Again, Inenco, which has over
£2.5 billion of energy under
management in the UK, is
on hand to help navigate
companies through this. “Our
reputation, built over 51 years, is
based on being an intermediary
between customers and what
can be quite a complex supply
network,” says Davidson.
“Traditionally, that’s been
around buying better but now
the conversation is moving
towards using less. We are
looking to simplify that complex
network and the saturated
landscape of providers, each
of whom play a small part in
the customer’s day-to-day
operations, but added together
make a really, really big impact
around sustainability.”
As the survey reveals, the
sustainability agenda is now
seen as an important part of
most companies’ future plans.
Whether you have a five-year
plan or are just starting out
on the sustainability journey,
Inenco are well-placed to help
guide you through.
One thing is certain, though,
the green agenda isn’t going
anywhere. “Sustainability is
becoming an accepted part of
the narrative around improving
businesses and improving the
planet we live in,” concludes
Knott. “It’s now not something
that’s only associated with
people who hug trees, it’s
become an accepted part of
what businesses do.”
Turn sustainability into
a competitive advantage:
call 01253 785294 or
visit www.inenco.com
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