by Rebecca Walker — October 28, 2009—Climate change, human rights and energy efficiency are some of the top priorities in business leaders’ sustainability strategies, according to a survey of BSR Conference 2009 attendees.
And just as important, a large majority of companies expect their sustainability budgets will stay the same or increase, making sure they have the money to enact the actions they want to.
The BSR/GlobeScan State of Sustainable Business Poll 2009 polled 274 business leaders attending the conference in San Francisco.
When asked to list “very significant” priorities over the next year, 41 percent chose climate change, 32 percent cited human rights, 29 percent said workers’ rights and 26 percent listed water availability/quality.
More companies are not only more focused on sustainability and environmental issues, but they expect to have the funds to support their climate strategies. Eighty-nine percent said their companies’ sustainability budgets will stay the same or increase, with only 8 percent saying that their budgets will decrease (in 2008, 31 percent said their budgets would decrease).
The top strategy related to climate change is energy efficiency, mentioned by 44 percent, and a large number of businesses see significant opportunities coming from lowering energy costs and/or other efficiencies (70 percent), improving stakeholder relationships (67 percent), driving innovation (65 percent) and strengthening credibility with consumers (65 percent).
Businesses also see many barriers to addressing climate change, but fewer companies see them as significant compared to the opportunities cited above. The barriers mentioned were competing strategic priorities (49 percent), short-term financial pressures/recession (46 percent), complexity of implementation (44 percent) and uncertain/insufficient policy frameworks (40 percent).
