Looking beyond balance sheets and into the value of a good and sustainable reputation might help some be convinced about the actual benefits investing in sustainability can bring.
Measuring the ROI (Return of Investment) of sustainability is one of the things most companies struggle with, as often times, it is difficult to put monetary value to taking care of the planet and society.
However, there is more to ROI than monetary value; and the benefits of sustainability apply to many business aspects, most notably, reputation and everything the latter encompasses.
Measuring the ROI of sustainability
Companies should not worry about sustainability more so than with any other investment, and so it should not be measured or treated any differently in that regard.
What is truly crucial is to understand the impact such investments can have on the future of the company, financially or otherwise, one way or another.
And what many fail to understand is that balance sheets might not always be the place to look for such data, at least not all of it. So where can we look for the return of investment of sustainability and prove it is indeed worth the money and resources?
Engage employees in the sustainability strategy
A good place to start could be reputation; it is undeniably a very important aspect of any company or brand, more so in the digital era we live in. And while it is difficult to measure financially or quantifiably, it can become a great indicator of the impact sustainability can have both internally and externally.
The reputational ROI of sustainability
While quantitative data can be trickier to obtain in order to understand the benefits and profitability of sustainability, we believe reputation, both internally and externally, may be a very interesting answer to comprehending the company’s sustainability ROI.
In the realm of the company’s reputation we can think of three distinct aspects that can help both measure and understand the importance and benefits of investing in sustainability initiatives and building a more responsible way of doing business:
- On the one hand we need to think of reputation in its classic form, this is, external reputation of the company. On today’s digital world, a company’s reputation is increasingly important, as well as fragile, if not handled carefully; and furthermore, sustainability has become almost inseparable from good reputation. Surveys are a good method for measuring the financial ROI of reputation and the impact sustianability communication and initiatives have on the latter overtime.
- On the other hand we have brand reputation and what that means for company sales or profits. Sustainability attracts more costumers and therefore this is a good example of a quantitative reputational ROI. This includes analyzing things such as customer satisfaction, loyalty, or spending, for example.
- Lastly, while reputation is great for attracting costumers, we cannot forget about how it can help attract talent, specially in our day and age, where younger generations demand sustainability to be part of the company they want to work with. Measuring employee engagement, satisfaction and productivity using sustainability lenses and metrics can help understand the contribution of sustainability to employees’ wellbeing and professional fulfillment.
The sustainable reputation guide
Engage employees in the sustainability strategy
In DoGood we believe that working collectively can help us find that which alone may seem unattainable or useless and instead create a collective and individual eagerness to make a difference, both for the sustainability and purpose of the company and a more sustainable way of being for all employees.
Through our technology we help companies establish ESG impact objectives for employees in regards to the sustainability strategy of the company, activating and tracking employees’ impact, and creating engagement that translates into improved ESG metrics, reputational value and an overall positive impact for the environment and society.
