Gartner sustainability research shows senior executives around the globe mean business when they think about environmental strategy.
Some 69% of CEOs view sustainability as a leading business growth opportunity, according to the survey of 400 CEOs and other senior players in commerce.
Conducted between July and December 2023, the 2024 edition of the Gartner CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey took into account the views of corporate leaders in North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and South Africa.
Kristin Moyer, vice president analyst at Gartner, commented: “As CEOs reset their long-term strategies, environmental sustainability remains one of the leading factors that will frame competition.
“Despite much corporate greenwash, recent economic conditions could have triggered a reversion to environmental, social and governance cynicism and a refocus on profit at all costs. However, the overall commitment of CEOs appears unwavering.”
Indeed, momentum in this area is growing. The B Team, a collective of global business leaders aiming to create new norms for corporate leadership which includes how to deal with sustainability, continues to add corporate leaders to its cohort – Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert joined in February.
Moyer added: “Sustainability consistently remains a top ten business priority, surpassing even productivity and efficiency this year. Leaders and investors know environmentally cavalier corporate behaviour is a mid- to long-term risk to business results, with a big price to be paid when environmental factors are ignored as externalities.”
Smart CEOs realise sizeable sustainability challenges actually create new areas of business opportunity, Moyer continued. The graph, below, shows the ways leaders are using sustainability to drive growth.
The Gartner sustainability research uncovered that 54% of CEOs say their businesses are affected by changing weather patterns, at least moderately. Some 51% of respondents acknowledge changing weather patterns are causing them to plan changes to the way they operate – or have already prompted changes.
“CEOs see that climate change is causing weather pattern shifts that are directly impacting their business operations already,” said Moyer.
“Those operations must be adapted, with technology playing a vital role in driving these changes, especially in the dynamics of supply chains.”
Evolving weather patterns have the biggest impact in operating dynamics (30%), according to Gartner, particularly via changes to logistics such as warehousing, timing, and routing of deliveries.
[image credit: Green Retail World image of Manhattan Associates’ Commerce Trends magazine 2023]
