Responding to the Sustainability Imperative

Government agencies and many large corporates across all industries are striving to improve the environmental and social performance of their own operations, and increasingly also of their suppliers, to meet their Corporate Social Responsibility objectives.

Below is a sample of some of the initiatives that government and non-government entities are implementing to improve the sustainability of their operations:

• Mandating reductions in Scope 1 and 2 emissions and exploring ways to reduce Scope 3 emissions (which impacts both their supply chain and downstream customers)
• Implementing more stringent targets and improved monitoring / reporting of key environmental measures in their operations e.g. energy consumption, water consumption, fuel consumption, waste generation, recycling rates, air quality, water quality, noise emissions, contamination levels, ecological impact, use of sustainable ingredients and materials for production and construction, community disruption etc.
• Setting local content / employment targets
• Setting Indigenous employment targets
• Improving gender equality
• Improving safety culture, systems and reporting
• Increased community engagement.

In Mainsheet’s experience, many service and product suppliers to government bodies and large corporates are grappling with how to respond and assist their customers achieve their desired sustainability outcomes. Clients are increasingly asking more of their suppliers at both the tender stage and during contract terms.

At the tender stage, suppliers are being asked to provide information on the sustainability of their products and services. How much weighting is put on sustainability criteria varies by industry and customer, but the overall trend is that more importance is being placed on these criteria. However, it is still not clear if customers will pay for more sustainable products / services, and if so, how much.

It is also becoming more common for suppliers to provide information on the sustainability of their entire operations, including beyond the specifics of the products and services provided in the particular tender or contract. Therefore, to remain competitive, suppliers are being forced to look at the sustainability of their own operations.

Several of Mainsheet’s clients have services specifically aimed at assisting clients improve the sustainability of the operations such as improving energy or water consumption via design, construction, asset management or maintenance of new systems. Many of these clients have observed that these capabilities tend to exist throughout their organisation, and they are considering how to pull together disparate services on sustainability initiatives into an integrated service and / or product offering around sustainability.

These aspects now form part of the strategic set of issues that suppliers to large entities should be considering. Mainsheet can potentially assist companies assess these issues and improve the suite of sustainability products and / or services they offer to clients with the following services:

• Development of new customer centric business models with sustainability offerings as a core element
• Development of digital strategies to more efficiently report on sustainability measures and to efficiently integrate into customers systems and operations
• Market assessments to understand what customers are seeking in their sustainability objectives
• Competitor reviews to understand what competitors are offering in terms of sustainability and if such services are improving their financial performance
• Business case development to assess the viability of various sustainability initiatives.

For a discussion on how you could incorporate or improve sustainability into your product and / services offering please contact Stephen D’Alessandro.