Blog Summary: Sustainability management has been gaining more attention in the corporate world than in the past. Effective sustainability management practices are the need of the hour as the world becomes more climate-conscious.

Sustainability management has transitioned from being a buzzword in the corporate world to gradually becoming a way of daily life and everyday company operations. It is now a core component of strategic planning for most organisations across the globe. Moreover, different companies and stakeholders are following different practices and stewardships to achieve their goals. An increasing number of companies are getting more serious and paying more attention to becoming sustainable. Interestingly, 75% of leaders said their organisations had already increased their investments towards a sustainable future. The degree to which an organisation can become sustainable depends on the kinds of sustainability management practices that the company undertakes.

This blog will focus on delving deeper into understanding the best sustainability practices for managers to follow.

What is sustainability management?

The term sustainability management explores the idea that irresponsible economic actions and practices cause undesirable consequences for the environment and climate action goals. It is a discipline that combines business and climate science to apply sustainable practices to businesses. This actually hampers business prospects also. Therefore, big corporates are taking into consideration the fact that there must be appropriate sustainability practices put in place to become more sustainable.

Some of the good management practice includes a structured approach to integrating environmental, social and the economic considerations. These sectors are kept in mind during the decision making process and the company operations to achieve sustainable goals in a systematic way through the best sustainable practices. In a nutshell, sustainability practice is a combination of sustainability with management.

Best sustainability management practices

Although different companies have different values and systems in place to manage their climate risks through climate actions, the goals remain the same: to achieve sustainability at their firm. Here is a look at different sustainability management practices:

1. Being transparent

Being transparent is the cornerstone of sustainability management. When businesses openly commit to reducing their emissions, they ensure brand building and improving their brand image. Adequate transparency in emissions measuring, accounting for the purpose of reporting Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) or any other climate compliance is a prerequisite for the desirable goals. Transparency in terms of data gathering and operational practices that have a maximum and direct impact on the environment is one of the essential sustainability practices. The TSC NetZero eliminates this challenge.

2. Accuracy

Not being highly accurate in sustainability management data gathering, processing and management could lead to organisations being penalised. The company’s emission data gathered for reporting under different compliances must be highly accurate and specific. No or low accuracy in data can directly impact the quality of reporting and the sustainability journey itself. Compromised emission data could help an organisation quickly and easily reach sustainability goals. Accurate emission data monitoring means more efficient climate actions. By creating accurate and updated data-hubs, organisations can become more accurate in sustainability monitoring.

3. Timely reporting 

Timely reporting is critical to sustainability management as this ensures avoiding penalties and keeps the organisation ahead in its sustainability journey. When organisations meet the compliances on time, they bring in much-needed confidence among the employees, investors, and stakeholders of the organisation. However, this calls for the timely gathering of data and its computation. 

4. Discipline of generating the report

While several compliances such as BRSR, SBTi and CBAM allow for yearly and quarterly reporting, it is advisable for organisations to develop their reports periodically multiple times in a year for internal audits. This ensures companies remain ahead of their own sustainability management timeline. This discipline further eliminates last-minute haste, compliance hassles, and keeps the sustainability management in pace and energised. 

5. Using credible and comprehensive software

The best partner for any company on its journey to manage sustainability is the trusted tool used for gathering, managing and reporting emissions. Having all the goals, timeliness, transparency and ideals aligned but not paying adequate attention to finding the right tool for monitoring emissions and reporting could be detrimental to the progress of an enterprises’ sustainability management. 

Best sustainability management tool features:

• Single platform to meet multiple compliances 
• Measurement and tracking of emissions
• Integrate data privacy feature
• Efficiency and ease of deploying a particular sustainability management tool 

The Sustainability Cloud and its product features allow organisations to participate in an end-to-end sustainability management journey.

6. Go beyond sustainability compliances

Sustainability management highly depends on factors that are beyond merely adhering to compliances. Sustainability practices and their effectiveness depends upon the fact that all the reporting compliances are carried out accurately, timely and transparently to show actual progress. 

Many times, sustainability managers are more focused on meeting the compliance requirements rather than paying more attention to the spirit of sustainability. One should not forget that the compliances are made to achieve sustainability goals and not for compliances themselves to be the sole aim. 

Benefits of sustainability management

There are multiple benefits of encouraging sustainability management practices for an organisation. And the advantages are visible at different levels and during different periods. Here is a look at a few advantages:

• Sustainability practices improve trust and increase the client base of a company
• Tried and tested sustainability practices help save company costs and boost efficiency 
• Effective sustainability practices improve productivity within the organisation
• Sustainability management practices also help in the efficient use of resources 

Sustainability practices are no longer about just achieving climate goals but are gradually becoming the license to operate for businesses.