The art of the possible
Business analytics to measure corporate sustainability By Jonathan Hornby In the abstract, business analytics presents a range of powerful options to uncover meaningful insights that promote action. And that promise is compelling to virtually any organization. But the case becomes even more persuasive when we consider how it can be applied to one of the fastestemerging issues in corporations today: sustainability and the corporate ‘environmental footprint’.
Today, companies are seeking to strengthen the so-called ‘triple bottom line’ that conceptually expands the traditional financial framework to encompass rigorous reporting on the organization’s performance on sustainability issues such as the carbon footprint, community development, occupational safety and dozens of other metrics.
Three planning challenges Unfortunately, significant barriers have impeded decisive corporate action. In the first MIT Sloan Management Review Business of Sustainability Survey, researchers articulated three major roadblocks. The first is a basic lack of information upon which to base sustainability efforts and decisions. Despite the high profile for sustainability, managers often find themselves forced to speculate about drivers of sustainable performance and lack a deep understanding of issues that are relevant for their industry. Accessing, interacting with and analyzing the fundamental data about energy, water and waste is a nonnegotiable premise for effective sustainability. Second, companies often have conflicting definitions of precisely what sustainability means to their organizations. This makes it extremely challenging to develop a meaningful business case for sustainable investments and presents an often insurmountable barrier to the effective cross-functional collaboration that is necessary for success. Third, without that business case based on accepted definitions, companies struggle with precisely 40