With an increasing number of environmental tragedies occurring in recent years, many wonder what companies are doing to boost sustainability efforts. Growing concerns regarding the state of natural resources and their future availability must become a major focus for all corporations, as the future of their business relies heavily on the environment, and vice versa. Corporate sustainability reporting has been adopted by a number of industry-leading firms, in order to communicate their plans to the public. Reevaluating product sourcing, packaging, transportation, and other steps involved in product preparation are just a few of the changes companies have employed to reduce their environmental impact.

Sustainability Reporting/ Transparency

Transparency and reporting corporate sustainability initiatives are best practices for all organizations. Reporting on these policies prompts businesses to think about the impact of their processes on the environment, as well as the impact the environment has on their business. Sustainability reports force businesses to become conscious of their decisions. In many cases, companies have been able to save money as they reduce waste.

The Coca-Cola Company has done a fantastic job in communicating and reporting their sustainability initiatives on their corporate website. At Coca-Cola, manufacturing processes require the use of significant volumes of natural resources. Reporting on sustainability has forced decision makers at Coca-Cola to find innovative ways to reduce the impact of the company on the environment, as they understand that the possibility of future resource depletion would inhibit them from creating their products. Acknowledging that sustainability reporting is a work in progress, here are some examples of the goals set by the Coca-Cola Company to improve corporate sustainability:

• Water Usage: Safely return the equivalent amount of water, to what we use in all of our beverages and their production, back to communities and the environment.
• Packaging: Reduce the amount of materials and energy used in creating product packaging. Invest in recycling and recovery programs so that packaging can be reused again. The company has invested in establishing PET recycling plants in various locations around the world. Lastly, increase the use of recycled products in the manufacturing of cans, bottles, caps and other products. This allows for recycled items to be reused, and for the finished product to be recycled in its entirety when consumed.
• Reduce Carbon Footprint and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Climate change is a two way street. Emissions from manufacturing processes and delivery (ex.vending machines and refrigeration) contribute to climate change. On the flip side, droughts, flooding and extreme weather impact a company's ability to carry out business processes, the availability of raw materials and consumer ability to purchase products. Coca-Cola has begun using energy efficient cooling systems, mixing energy sources and set standards to reduce the energy used throughout product manufacturing and delivery.

The goals and initiatives established by the Coca-Cola Company can be used as examples of goals and areas for consideration by other companies. According to experts at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, reporting on non-financial information, such as sustainability, requires the same amount of care given to reports that are mandatory for every business to publish:

“Currently, companies issue their sustainability reports voluntarily. Sustainability reporting is not a public relations exercise. These reports must contain factual information about a company’s policies, programs, and performance, as well as management’s analyses and interpretations of that performance. These reports help the reader understand how the company’s operations impact society and the natural environment, and what the company is doing to reduce the negative impacts.

Brand Image

Sustainability efforts create significant benefits for brands. When an environmental catastrophe is caused by a business or business process, the public response can be detrimental. Just look at the hit BP has taken for the explosion and oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. The damages of the events in the Gulf are still unclear; however, it’s likely the impacts will be felt for many generations to come.

In the SustainAbility article, “Five Principles for Sustainable Brands,” they write:

“Brand is the embodiment of an organization– the symbols, experiences and associations connected to it. The connection between sustainability and brand helps build better relationships across value chains, creates new market opportunities, reduces risk, and, critically, more deeply embeds sustainable practices by making them part of the organization's identity, its story – and when sustainability is part of the brand promise, it is far less likely to be compromised.”

As mentioned earlier in the post, sustainability forces organizations to consider a number of risks and implications of their processes on the environment. Building sustainability into corporate compliance or social programs is becoming increasingly common. When a company comes forward with their goals, they are held accountable for achieving them. Sustainability goals can also be credited for improving overall corporate performance, as waste and costs are reduced.