John F Brock, Coca Cola Enterprises
Blog Spot 1/3
We know that the success and
sophistication with which companies
are adopting sustainability strategies
varies widely. However, we have
found that the most critical driver of
sustainability within an organisation
is senior leadership. According to
our research*, nearly half of business
executives (44%) believe engagement
with their leaders will be the most
important factor in successfully
implementing a sustainability strategy
over the next three years.
What I found particularly striking was
the challenge of mobilising business
leaders to engage on sustainability issues
– both in the acknowledgement of its
importance and the barriers to putting
it into practice.
As a CEO, I think it's imperative for
Boards of businesses to have periodic
meetings that address sustainability.
There seems to be great opportunity
for improvement here as only 18% of
the senior executives we surveyed have
directors who assess the success of
sustainability initiatives.
This is further demonstrated by a
recent article on edie.net which revealed
that UK workplaces are missing out
on more than £300m a year in savings
that could be achieved by engaging
employees in energy efficiency and
waste reduction.
In our experience, employees are
passionate about this and want
to help their organisations
lead. The importance of
sustainability to the workforce
of the future further demonstrates
one of the many reasons why it's vital
for leaders to engage their businesses
with sustainability practices.
I know, for example, that sustainability
is the second biggest driver of employee
engagement at CCE, so communicating
our vision and explaining the role
everyone can play is part and parcel of
our everyday operations.
I firmly believe that businesses
Senior leadership is acknowledging that societal and environmental
challenges are bigger than us all
