Why Sustainability Is the Next Priority for Enterprise Software
Over the next four years, the EU will roll out carbon tax policies and already investors are flocking to companies with well-documented, data-backed ESG policies and commitments. Businesses are making significant investments in staff and expertise, with the number of roles in sustainability up 91% over the last five years in the UK alone. The future of how we do business must be environmentally sustainable, and integrated technology solutions will help us make this adjustment.
These signs give me hope — but when it comes to how businesses and industry tackle sustainability, we are still only at the beginning. To meet market and consumer demands, every enterprise will need to evolve their sustainability programs into being just as accurate and rigorous as that of financial accounting. Similarly to the The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 mandates practices in financial record keeping and reporting for corporations in the US, we can expect laws and consumer expectations around sustainability impacts to follow suit.
In the same way that SaaS platforms, cloud computing, and digital transformation have changed how enterprises sell, hire, and invest, we’re on the cusp of similar changes within sustainability. For example, as recently as the mid-2000s, interviewing for a new corporate job meant printing out resumes, distributing paper benefits pamphlets, and signing forms that had been Xeroxed a half-dozen times. Today, numerous human resources software companies offer streamlined digital solutions for tracking candidates, onboarding new colleagues, and managing benefits. When large organizations are faced with a high volume of data in any area of their business, digitization is the inevitable solution. Enterprises have come to a similar tipping point in their need for sustainability software today. With the rising demand to track and prove ESG commitments, digital solutions are now being built into the fabric of enterprise sustainability reporting. Importantly, these solutions will help scale progress on climate change.
Over the last decade, I’ve seen firsthand how data-first sustainability efforts have helped major consumer brands take inventory of their environmental impact and then inform key decisions to transform their footprint.
Looking ahead, we can expect sustainability technology to be the next wide-scale enterprise investment. Leaders who have paved the way like Nike and VF can provide helpful lessons to businesses just beginning to take a serious look at their environmental impact.
