With 194 parties signing the Paris agreement and the EU signing the European Green Deal, applying sustainability protocols and having sustainable solutions have become a legal requirement for companies from all industries. Some heavy-pollutant industries are affected more severely and need much more dramatic alterations in know-how, production, and retail operations to comply with the challenging goal of 50-55% reduction in carbon emissions.

Nevertheless, all companies from different industries must integrate sustainability solutions to their operations up to some extent, depending on the nature of the industry and their emission levels. Achieving the 2030 agenda is neither cheap nor easy, but with enough effort, companies will be rewarded both environmentally and economically.

The digital transformation has a huge impact on businesses. Digital solutions have become increasingly popular among all industries and are involved in almost every process of companies, varying from production to retail operations, accounting to HR and R&D.

Digitalization can be thought of as a transformation of know-how and company culture. It is commonly referred to as “the future” providing both direct and indirect benefits to businesses. Since it has a potential to influence businesses in every way, sustainability efforts of an organization can be significantly altered and shaped by digitalization as well.

Modernized architectures allow faster data delivery, better scalability, more accessible data, accurate business insights, and efficient cost control. The accumulation of such benefits enabled by digital transformation and data analytics can make a tremendous difference in revenues and ROI as well as employee and customer satisfaction.

To achieve modernized architectures, companies are advised to leverage modern technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), de-centralized, and cloud-based data analytics. Leveraging these technologies help organizations to become more data-driven and sustainable and to increase their efficiency. Thanks to the monitorization of sustainability-related data, more accuracy and quality are achieved, resulting in a higher sustainability through scientifically-quantifiable data visualizations.

Sustainability efforts may require a significant amount of time and financial investment. Luckily, they come along with a huge range of economic benefits which can even exceed the investment if companies follow the right approach, benefiting from the above-mentioned technologies and the data-driven insights they bring.

The benefits of sustainable solutions may vary depending on the use case and the sector they are being used for, however, here are the most common direct and indirect financial benefits of integrating sustainable solutions for various sectors:

Direct Financial Benefits

• Boosted efficiency through an increased rate/volume of production, higher yield with less energy.
• Improved Return on Investment (ROI), facilitating to have shorter payback periods.
• Reduced overall energy consumption through environmentally friendly systems.
• Lowered overall costs through efficient systems, improved profitability.
• Much higher automation options, leading to an improved customer & employee satisfaction.
• Ability to monitor the efficiency, improved accuracy of scientifically-backed sustainability data resulting in higher compliance to state-regulated sustainability protocols, avoiding fines.

Indirect Financial Benefits

• Potentially broader market share by enhancing brand awareness and reputation.
• Increased brand and product value, contributing to premium perception and creating more possibilities to attract new clients.
• Decreased employee turnover, reduced training costs.

Sustainable solutions provide more revenue, brand awareness, and value to the organizations in several ways. Among those state-of-the-art technologies, intelligent automation helps companies to increase the volume of production, create more automation options, and significantly influence the production capacity. Cost reduction is also another significant aspect of digital solutions for sustainability, helping organizations around the world to have a much healthier financial state, increasing the profit potential.

Moreover, sustainable companies have a higher reputation in all industries, making organizations the center of attention. By increasing the brand awareness and value, organizations potentially have more impact in their corresponding sectors, indirectly attracting more clients and generating more profit.

For instance, a multinational consumer goods company achieved a growth rate of almost 70% in their different business units derived from the commitment in sustainable solutions. Similarly, a global mass merchandiser saved 90 million Euros in a decade, cutting their annual costs by 9 million Euros.

Employee satisfaction is another important factor determining an organization’s success. Sustainable solutions and digitalization enable more automation options, reducing the workloads of the employees and thereby build more satisfaction among employees.

From a sustainability point of view, the 2030 agenda is a challenging pathway that requires the effort for every bit of reduction in carbon emissions as well as accurately measuring and collecting crucial insights. Digital solutions are all about efficiency and can greatly influence companies’ success of strengthening environmental standards.

After the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement, companies and countries in the EU can now be inspected and even fined for insufficiency in complying with sustainability protocols depending on their solvencies and GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Therefore, implementing sustainability analytics provides great opportunities to become an efficient organization with significant monetary gains and help to avoid bitter consequences of breaching the European Green Deal. 

As a global consulting company, we can support you to run your 2030 agenda. You can rely on our experts to efficiently implement sustainability data analytics and start collecting, measuring, and calculating the carbon footprint of your organization. Start to improve your ESG compliance and enhance your sustainability performance. Thanks to our vast experience in Cloud Data & Analytics, you will smoothly discover the key areas of improvement.