The financial executive's role in Corporate sustainability: when properly instituted, sustainability initiatives can be profitable strategic business decisions that take a long-range perspective and benefit the environment, society and the business itself.

• Author: Ingersoll, Christina
• Position: SUSTAINABILITY

By now, most companies have either initiated some sustainability projects, or know that they should. Corporate conversations are no longer, "what is sustainability and why should my company care about it?" but rather "what kind of sustainability initiatives make sense, and how can we implement them here?"

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Previously, the norm in many corporations was to hire a person to run sustainability or to relegate sustainability initiatives to the marketing and public relations departments.

While "chief sustainability officers" can be instrumental in creating positive change--and marketing and PR should certainly be involved in these efforts--there is a distinct and valuable role that the chief financial officer can play in the creation of successful projects.

Financial executives are prized for their abilities of sustainability initiative's key requirements. They are skilled at scoping and setting budgets--a mandatory preliminary step. Equally important, they're usually most practiced at goal-setting, baselining, progress tracking, reporting and accountability in general.

Sustainability initiatives need to be verified, tracked and reported to positively impact the company, as well as the environment and society. In addition, when sustainability efforts are done in part to comply with current, proposed or voluntary regulations, proper auditing is essential.

Developing the practice of sustainability tracking will help the business realize the potential bottom-line benefits that such measures can have. It will also prepare a company to be one step ahead of future regulation or better prepared to enter a new market with environmental regulations.

In addition, a company accustomed to tracking its impacts on the environment and the the people the business affects will be able to rapidly respond to any attacks or investigations from watchdog or social action groups that might seek to damage a company's reputation.

Strategy Should Strengthen The Business

There remain important questions about sustainability initiatives that a smart financial executive should ask before saying "yes" to a new project or renewing budgets for existing initiatives. A well-chosen initiative should strengthen the business. It should lead to more sales, reduced expenses, lower employee turnover, better brand differentiation and/or a competitive position for the company in response to current and projected environmental regulations domestically and abroad.

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