How sustainability integration drives value today

The business case for sustainability is becoming an increasingly pressing issue, and according to a recent report, organizations that integrate sustainability into their core strategy are significantly more likely to find value creation through sustainability in key areas such as innovation, sales growth and investment attraction.

Trellis data partner GlobeScan, along with Accounting for Sustainability (A4S), SustainableIT.org, the ERM Sustainability Institute and Salesforce, surveyed 320 senior executives and found that companies that have integrated sustainability into their business operations deliver significantly more value than those that haven’t. Companies with highly integrated sustainability, for example, reported driving innovation by 79 percent, compared to 52 percent in companies where it’s less integrated.

So, what is the key to successful sustainability integration and, in turn, value creation? GlobeScan’s research highlights one critical differentiator: highly integrated companies foster stronger collaboration among finance, IT and sustainability teams. This “sustainability value triangle” enables them to identify the biggest opportunities, quantify financial impact and automate the collection of meaningful data for informed decision-making.

What this means

Organizations have significant potential to enhance performance by strengthening the integration of finance, IT and sustainability functions. As regulations on mandatory reporting have encouraged these teams to work more closely together in recent years, this collaboration has become even more essential. However, with regulatory landscapes shifting – such as the U.S. scaling back reporting requirements while the EU considers reducing disclosure volumes – companies must reassess what collaborations truly drive value versus what is purely compliance-driven.

Notably, our research found that companies with strong sustainability integration are more likely to view reporting requirements as catalysts for valuable collaboration. Their strategic approach offers a blueprint for others looking to turn compliance into a driver of business value.

Based on a global survey of 320 senior executives from November to January for the Sustainability Value Triangle report.

The post How sustainability integration drives value today appeared first on Trellis.