The net zero carbon 2050 target looms large in 2020 sustainability thinking
The 13th annual IWFM sustainability survey report, just published, demonstrates the remarkable breadth of a topic that has long since transcended its environmental roots. Topics that simply did not factor into the earlier years of reporting now dominate the sustainability agenda.
First conducted in 2007, this year’s survey saw a 40 per cent boost in respondents informing the report, most being senior managers or directors. Their assessments are that, as well as social value, health and wellbeing are increasingly seen as parts of a sustainable corporate mindset.
While almost universally accepted as of ongoing importance, barriers to developing sustainable practices continue to be reported. They are familiar: financial, physical and time constraints continue to frustrate, with the criticality of compliance continuing to be the most significant driver of corporate engagement with sustainability initiatives.
The report shows an uptick in lifecycle cost reduction and adoption of new technologies being tied to some form of sustainability end goal.
The report demonstrates that recent legislation and how organisations are responding to it are what is most clearly informing the sustainability agenda. With the publicity generated by legislation, it is no surprise to see social value play an ever more sizeable role in organisation’s sustainability activity. IWFM has been working with the Social Value Portal to develop minimum reporting standards – a key intervention, given concerns over the definition and measurement of social value performance.
Net-zero carbon reduction targets have helped broaden corporate perception of the many levers at their disposal for pursuing their own ‘circular economy’ and appreciating its effects on their supply chain and customers.
The reasons why sustainability is seen as important to organisations have not varied significantly since the 2018 survey. Around three-quarters felt its importance was tied to legislative compliance, although two-thirds also saw customer expectation as a principal driver.
Conducted during the pandemic, the report highlights how the physical, social and mental wellbeing of employees is seen as a powerful sustainability metric. Respondents spoke of investing in wellbeing initiatives and the measurement of their success, with mental health expected to be the biggest area of focus for wellbeing in the year ahead.
A key dynamic caused by net zero legislation is its impact on investors and how they assess the value of their portfolios in light of their need to meet ever more onerous emissions standards.
The resulting seismic shift in the importance of sustainable buildings is influencing corporate behaviour around sustainability in significant ways. It’s also striking to hear much more about corporate commitment to the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goals. 2020 was supposed to see the UK host the UN’s COP 21 climate change conference; it will now take place next year.
IWFM Sustainability Report 2020, produced in association with Inenco, can be downloaded here.
IWFM Turbulent Times Webinar, 1st October 2020 - Sustainability: today’s landscape and how instigate change’, can be viewed here (60 minutes).
Facilitate feature, September 2020: The Net Effect can be read here (1,500 words).
IWFM Sustainability Report 2020, produced in association with Inenco, can be downloaded here.
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