Sustainability – Making Different the New Normal

18th April, 2023

The realisation that a healthy economy cannot be sustained without healthy environmental and social systems has bought corporate sustainability to the forefront of many business leaders. Can companies do both? Can they have a decent business and conduct it decently? I firmly believe so.

Four things are critical for success though; 1. You must have a plan (goals, objectives, milestones) and create the vision with your stakeholders; 2. the strategies MUST support your plan, be embedded into the business and not sitting as an add-on to the side. Meaning that it must permeate through every business discussion and decision for it to be truly effective.  3 Recognition must be given to creating long term value (as well as short term) and understanding that this value may extend past the generations contained within the immediate business. And most importantly 4. Do not – under any circumstances – fake it!  Do not pretend that you are making changes if you are not.  You will get caught out, it will affect your reputation and you will risk all the true and valid changes that people are making.

As far as ability to encourage substantial change is concerned, very few industries permeate across as many different areas as the logistics industry.  In anyone day, a logistics personnel can engage with global agents, shipping lines, airlines, trucking companies, manufacturers in different sectors, buyers – and various people within those departments such as sales, operations, finance and IT.  Add to this the fact that the transport industry is one of the biggest emitters of direct carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions due the burning of fossil fuels and we can see why it is imperative that our industry steps up to involved in making change.

And we have some exceptionally smart and passionate people within our sector involved in things like decarbonisation, circularity, alternative energies etc.  Many of them have been forging forward in this area for many years, not just stressing the importance of change but actively leading it.  

But if you are a company or individual within your company, looking at the negative impacts of climate change, loss of biodiversity, the approximately 300 million tonnes of plastic that the world generates every year, urbanisation, food waste, human rights violations etc – it can be daunting as to how to go about even starting to make a difference.

How do you convince your stakeholders in a post covid, tightening economic world, that outside of moral and ethical obligation, there are other commercial benefits for a business to pursue more sustainable business practices?

Let’s start with the basics.

• Meeting customer demand
  • More of our customers are demanding it because their consumers are demanding it from them.  Meaning that this gives you new market opportunities and can prevent you from losing current ones. 
• Meeting or surpassing legal and Government requirements 
  • Sustainability strategy can help address legislative pressures and help businesses stay ahead of the compliance curve.  It’s not a case of if – it’s when.
• Attract and retain top talent
  • One of the things we have recognised in the Logistics sector is that it is often difficult to attract new talent into the industry.  Many employees will actively look for companies that have implemented sustainable business policies.
• Reduce costs
  • Once you start looking at integrating sustainable strategies into your business you will, without question, identify various cost saving measures. 
• Attract or keep investors
  • If you are wanting to consider selling to or bringing in investors, they are going to want to see a company that has long term viability as opposed to only short-term gains. 

So where do you start?
There is a lot to go through – and once you start on this journey, I can assure you that you will become more engaged in the various ways that our industry is looking to make change. 

But for those yet to engage – this is for you.

• Understand what is important to your company’s stakeholders – employees, leaders, customers – this way you can engage and set targets that are relevant to your organisation to begin with.  Don’t try and do everything all at once.  The overall sustainability plan should ultimately seek to go beyond change within your organisation but start within first. Look at your energy use, look at your waste and recycling programs, do you have a policy that governs your staff training and development.  Identify short term and long-term goals that are achievable, but don’t be afraid to push beyond what is required with bold commitments. 
• The best person to lead sustainability within your organisation (besides everyone) will be someone who is passionate about change but is also someone who knows a lot about the various areas of your business.  True sustainability requires buy-in and collaboration with all company departments – operations, finance, Customs, warehouse, IT etc etc.
• Consider completing an ESG assessment for external certification.  There are various ones around, we have received EcoVadis certification, and we did so because it asked us to address all of the areas of our business with people, planet and process.  This is a formal measurement and reflection of your company’s commitment to safeguarding environmental and social systems and gives you a framework to grow on and discuss with your stakeholders for increased awareness and buy in.  Publish this scorecard for added accountability and actively work towards improving your scorecard.  Look at the United Nations SDGs and see how you can align change within your own organisation – this will give you a global focus and make sure that you really think about how you – regardless of the size of your company – can make a difference.  Look at options to measure the carbon output of your company as well as your customers.  The best way to understand your impact is to measure it – then you can actively have a base to improve from.
• Once you get a better understanding of the goals you want to achieve, look for avenues of collaboration and partnership.  Don’t be afraid to engage with competitors.  Collaborate with customers, service providers, agents.
• Don’t just go immediately to offsetting.  Look for ways to actively reduce your impact – and then if you do bring in offsetting, look for ones that are validated and serve as a funding source to make change – for example they may be investing in green logistics solutions.  Be actively involved in making a difference within the supply chain – learn about the programs that you are engaging with.  Look for innovative approaches and strategies within our industry. 
• Get past the acronyms and buzz talk and understand that true business leaders will see this change not just as critical but strategic and beneficial.
• Celebrate successes and milestones along the way and publish internally and externally.  This helps keep stakeholders engaged and allows you to have a greater impact.

Some useful websites to help you on your journey:
https://www.smartfreightcentre.org/en/how-to-implement-glec-framework/
https://sdgs.un.org/goals
https://unglobalcompact.org/
https://ecovadis.com/
https://bcorporation.com.au/
https://www.climateactive.org.au/
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/