A New Era of Sustainability

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Today's CEOs are more committed than ever to creating a sustainable business. Yet the motivator is no longer just social responsibility; it's now equally about achieving high performance measured in terms such as lower costs, stronger customer relationships and increased revenues.

This relentless business focus is a key characteristic of a "new era of sustainability," one in which environmental, social and corporate governance issues are embedded throughout operations, the supply chain and subsidiaries. That era is closer than one might think, according to a new report from the United Nations Global Compact and Accenture, based on a global survey of more than 750 CEOs and in-depth interviews with 50 of the world's foremost CEOs in a range of industries and geographies.

Other insights from the research, the largest CEO-based study on sustainability of its kind to date, include:

• 93 percent of Global Compact CEOs see sustainability as important to their future success
• Performance gaps exist between those who agree with the importance of embedding sustainability into the business and those who report success with that objective. Execution is key
• Re-establishing consumer trust is the immediate issue. Seventy-two percent of executives cite “strengthening brand, trust and reputation” as the strongest motivator for taking action on sustainability issues
• Technology, collaboration and a deeper understanding of consumer desires are critical success factors in the coming years
• The investment community must more effectively factor progress toward sustainability into valuation models
• CEOs believe that we are moving toward an era in which businesses will no longer focus purely on profit and loss as the primary means of valuation, but rather take into account also the positive and negative impacts on society and the environment