How adopting a sustainability culture propels innovation
Commercial sustainability is no longer just the responsibility of the Sustainability Manager or CSO. Creating and supporting a business culture that empowers sustainable healthy growth, has to be integral to the day-to-day decisions and actions of every member of your team. Businesses who get it, are leading the way on innovation, and are already reaping the rewards of an engaged team, an inspired customer base, an integrated supply chain and interest from investors who are looking to capitalise on the early entrants in tomorrow’s low carbon economy. But how do businesses make the transition?
We have spoken to hundreds of business leaders and sustainability managers keen to move at pace but find themselves stifled by a combination of time constraints, confidence, and capability to work on both the long and short term simultaneously. This is where the power of a sustainability culture really comes into its own. By empowering your team to identify and tackle new ways of working, new materials, new service offerings, new propositions, to talk to suppliers and even competitors about collaboration, business leaders can find they are presented with more opportunity than they could have ever imagined.
The Refill Coalition is a great example of this in action. This UK based coalition has developed, tested, and installed a standardised concept that delivers unpackaged / refillable grocery retail solutions, at scale for in store and online delivery. The solution brings to life an area in a retail store, Aldi Solihull being the first installation, and offers refillable vessels delivering refills at scale for key food staples (e.g. cereals and pasta) and household products (cleaning and personal care products), removing single-use plastic packaging when moving products from supplier to customer and driving efficiencies. This innovation is only made possible by a collaborative and transparent value chain, and empowering people to work beyond the boundaries of any of the coalition businesses, accelerating the adoption and widespread implementation of refill solutions in mainstream retail. The online deliver concept is due to live trail later this year, via Ocado.
Sustainable business is far from a new idea. With science backed legislation and consumer values driving a cultural shift, how can businesses accelerate their own transition?
The first thing we discuss with clients of Cogent Action is the idea that if you aren’t accelerating toward a wider sustainable transformation, you are actively slowing it down. That can be quite a sobering thought for leaders to face up to and is usually followed by an admission that they feel paralysed by the complexities of Net Zero and sustainability jargon or are so busy with the immediate term priorities they haven’t had the chance to look 5 years ahead.
At Cogent Action we see our role as supporting the change that is required for businesses to act, and that means empowering your people to be proactive, and not sit back thinking someone else is going to fix it. This means we help business leaders, sustainability managers and CSOs to embed a sustainability culture that inspires and ignites action. How do we do that? It all starts with a clear vision of who you are as an organisation and what customer needs you meet, and then requires a consistent focus on the role your brand or business plays in people’s lives, either directly or as part of a wider value chain.
Applying data, tools and measurements at every step, helps us identify your environmental and market impact, as well as that of your competition (where possible), which loops us back into the organisations vision and mission. We question the continued relevance, and identify nuances needed as markets mature, then together with your teams we identify a bespoke pathway that not only decarbonises your business model of today, but helps prepare the foundations for a new, clean, and bright future focussed model that’s fit for tomorrow’s low carbon economy.
Sustainable business and sustainability culture is characterised by collaboration and integration, and that’s fundamental to how we work. Over the years we have amassed an impressive list of contacts, suppliers, collaborators, and facilitators all of which are bought into consideration as we act together with our client to accelerate their sustainability transformation. Our aim is the same as yours, profitable growth, healthy growth, sustainable growth, contributing to a thriving holistic economy - we are just very open to the idea that that can come from producing less, consuming less, and doing things differently.
To find out more about Cogent Action, the services we offer or how we can help, please drop us a note to arrange an exploratory conversation via the button below.