Sustainability benefits.

Being a sustainable business can deliver clear commercial benefits - managing costs, improving efficiencies, even helping boost profitability and generate future revenue. So what is sustainability and what can it do for your business?

What is sustainability?

Every leader wants to run their business in a lasting and responsible way, to position their business to take advantage of an increasingly uncertain future, and to leave behind a positive legacy.

That, in a nutshell, is what sustainability means - protecting your business from the risks of today, and ensuring that your business can respond to the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.

Whether it's the rise of the internet, the global financial crisis, or climate change, sustainable businesses are those which can adapt to changing conditions and turn crisis into opportunity. Businesses that are not sustainable cannot expect to endure.

No business today can really afford to ignore the environment, and those that do run the risk not just of falling foul of legislation but of being at a commercial disadvantage. From growing business value to developing new business to saving on energy, there are many significant benefits to being a sustainable business.

The benefits of being a sustainable business.

Tap into a growing market.

Research shows that the sustainability market in the UK will continue to expand rapidly over the next three years. A projection of spending in the market to increase to £5.5 billion pounds by 2013 represents a growth of 14% from today's value. (Source: www.verdantix.com: UK Climate Change & Sustainability Spending 2009-13)

Save on resources, save energy, save money.

The average business wastes 20% of the energy it uses. Whatever sector you are in, you can save energy and money just by making your business more energy efficient. (Source - EDF Energy)

Increase your chances of winning new business.

Increasingly, sustainability is a deal-breaker. Government departments and other big purchasers of business services are putting pressure on supply chains to green their processes. More and more tenders and pitch documents now expect businesses to be able to demonstrate their green sustainability credentials.

Encourage staff engagement and retention.

Businesses with "engaged" employees can be as much as 43 percent more productive and people who believe their jobs are meaningful channel their "discretionary effort" into their work. (Source: - Hay Group)

Tips - Resource Efficiency.

• Save up to 10% on lighting costs by switching off all non-essential lighting out of business hours as well as in any areas of the workplace that aren't in use (Source: EDF Energy.)
• Save up to 5% on energy costs by switching off unnecessary equipment during the day and especially out of hours (Source: EDF Energy.)

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