By Dasha Afanasieva
Management consultants often urge their clients to view setbacks or difficulties as opportunities. The cost of reducing environmental impacts are often cited as one such “opportunity”.
But a global study from consultancy BCG and MIT Sloan Management Review has shown that companies are increasingly putting this advice into practice and succeeding in getting the returns.
The study is based on a survey of 2,600 executives and managers from companies around the world and found that the number of companies achieving a profit from introducing changes aimed at making their business more sustainable rose 23 percent last year, to 37 percent of the total.
Nearly half of the companies have changed their business models to try to make the most of sustainability opportunities—a 20 percent jump over last year.
Nor is a preoccupation with sustainability the reserve of the developed world.
Companies in emerging markets change their business models as a result of sustainability at a far higher rate than those based in North America, the study found.
