Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
In companies, it is common that a major barrier to internal collaboration is that functional areas do not understand their impact on others. Companies bridging that gap – using an embedded sustainability strategy aligned to the core business strategy, and business processes – will have an edge in creating a competitive value chain capable of fulfilling business strategy requirements.
However, before rushing forward, it is vital to understand environmental foot-printing, and the importance of data capture is equal to how that data is used, measured and verified. For example: it needs to show the interdependence of areas within an organization, because what optimization may have taken place in one area could well have created a negative impact in another.
What you don’t measure – you can’t manage. Conversely, what you measure badly you will manage badly.