Sustainability Live 2024, held on September 10th and 11th, was packed with eye-opening discussions and practical insights into the future of sustainability. Here’s a quick rundown of the top 3 themes that caught our attention 🔎
1. 📏Measuring What Matters
One major topic over the two days was the challenge of measuring sustainability. As Ellen McCormack, Head of Europe at Watershed, highlighted in one of the panels: “How can you improve what you can’t measure?”
Several discussions focused on carbon reporting and the difficulties of tracking the true environmental impact of products throughout their lifecycle. Without reliable data, making informed decisions or improvements is tough. It’s also crucial to embed reporting as a key task across all areas of the business, not just leave it to the sustainability team, to drive meaningful progress in a business' sustainability strategy.
2. 🫰The Business Case for Sustainability
Another hot topic was building a business case for sustainable initiatives.
Traditional business models often emphasise short-term financial returns, which can sometimes conflict with sustainability goals. Garrett Quinn, Chief Sustainability Officer at Smurfit Westrock, shared his insights during a panel discussion, noting that the payback from some sustainability projects can be less tangible and the business case isn't always immediately clear. The challenge is further complicated by significant regional differences in sustainability regulations and attitudes.
Despite these hurdles, the panel demonstrated how investing in sustainability can lead to long-term savings and enhanced customer loyalty, helping to justify the case for sustainable practices.
3 🤝🏼 Power of Collaboration
Finally, the event highlighted the crucial role of collaboration in advancing sustainability goals. The event demonstrated that there is the need for both external partnerships and internal cooperation across various business functions and supply chains. Discussions focused on how businesses and policymakers must work together to establish clear regulations and frameworks that support progress.
By fostering collaboration across sectors and within organisations, the event showcased how joint efforts are going to be key to driving meaningful and sustainable change at pace.
Why these three challenge areas stood out to us at Earthmark:
We believe that data is key. Data is at the core of Earthmark's mission: to bring together the world’s information on sustainability to make it clear, comparable and easily accessible for everyone.
ROI in sustainability. We know that businesses with a more positive environmental performance perform better than those who don't. Our case study with Kindred demonstrates this as we've seen a 51% increase in orders with brands that have an Earthmark of 3+ out of 5.
Power in Partnerships. Collaboration is key and, at Earthmark, we know that partners play a crucial role in helping to achieving our goals. By partnering with key organisations, like affiliate networks, publishers and advertisers we ensure that Earthmarks reach the right people in the right places. Every choice matters, and our collective efforts give individuals the ability to make more conscious decisions that can drive meaningful change.
If you're interested in partnering with Earthmark, let's talk.
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