Where customers pay attention to sustainability, companies that demonstrate sustainability score points. Sustainability thus becomes a win-win factor. For this to succeed, however, a strategy and competent management are required. We discuss with Martin Krill, CEO of HAGER, how companies can make the most of the growing sense of responsibility when it comes to sustainability.
Sustainability: from a niche topic to a decisive competitive factor
Just a few years ago, sustainability was considered a niche topic for a small section of society. The linking of fundamental aspects of sustainability with comparatively high costs allowed companies to largely ignore this trend and continue to argue on the basis of availability and price. In recent years, this picture has changed increasingly and with ever greater speed. Sustainability has reached the center of society and can no longer be ignored by companies.
A survey of 16,000 companies conducted by the Institute for Employment Research in 2019 revealed that more than a third (36.2%) are meeting their customers’ explicit demand for sustainable products and services. Accordingly, around 43% of the companies surveyed consider sustainability to be part of their corporate philosophy, which 30% of them pursue despite higher costs.
Sustainability as a mindset of corporate identity
These figures make it clear that sustainability is a fundamental decision for companies. This is associated with an overriding mindset. In other words: if sustainability is not actively practiced in companies out of conviction, the topic is doomed to failure. For example, the first step must be a willingness to make an effort, to leave the beaten track and to accept the costs involved.
“In the early years of sustainability, many companies took a rather pragmatic approach,” recalls Martin Krill, Managing Partner of HAGER. “This gave rise to phenomena such as greenwashing and greenscamming. However, very few companies were able to hold their own against increasingly critical and informed customers in the long term. Companies that have honestly integrated the topic of sustainability into their corporate DNA have fared far better.”
Sustainability comes from the top
In order to prove itself as a success factor in the long term, sustainability must permeate the entire company as a central motif. In connection with this, it is also essential to measure and document results in order to promote and further develop sustainability as a process in the long term. Overall success stands and falls with the willingness and competence of the management level. In particular, the challenging transformation process can only succeed if it is shaped and managed with conviction. However, this also means that companies will have to invest additional time and effort in the area of training or another aspect in the selection of suitable managers.
