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USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION
CORPORATE CITIZENS By Matt Alderton
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Responsible Revenue In corporate America, sustainability has evolved from business cost to business driver
T’S A BUSINESS TRUISM: You have
to spend money to make money. For decades, however, the perceived cost of sustainability was too great and the return too little. Even though many companies understood the need for eco-friendly practices, they turned a blind eye to one type of green — conservation — in the interest of another type: cash. A 2009 study by MIT Sloan Management Review and The BCG Consulting Group surveyed more than 1,500 corporate executives and found that more than 92 percent of companies were addressing sustainability in some way, but that the vast majority of efforts were limited to satisfying regulatory requirements. Nearly 70 percent of survey respondents said their company had not developed a clear business case for sustainability, and many cited cost as a major barrier to implementing sustainable practices. “Sustainability issues normally need huge and expensive investments first,” wrote one survey respondent. “(It’s) not clear how to monetize sustainability,” wrote another. “(It) puts us at a cost disadvantage versus competition,” shared a third. Although they weren’t entirely wrong — eco-friendly materials and practices often come at a premium — the economics of sustainability are rapidly changing. And more importantly, so are consumer attitudes, suggests a 2020 study by IBM and the National Retail Federation. The study found that nearly 8 in 10 consumers (78 percent) prefer to do business with environmentally responsible brands, and that nearly 6 in 10 (58 percent) are willing to change their shopping habits to reduce environmental impact. Because sustainability is becoming more affordable and more popular, instead of viewing it as a business cost, corporate America is increasingly seeing it as a business driver. Here, four company executives explain how their businesses embrace that mindset:
WERNER ENTERPRISES: DELIVERING A HEALTHY PLANET Anyone who’s driven behind one knows that trucks are major polluters. If you ask transportation giant Werner Enterprises, however, the time has come for trucks to deliver not only cargo, but also a healthier planet. That’s why it WERNER ENTERPRISES
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