PROGRESS FRAMEWORK DEVISED TO BENCHMARK CORPORATE ACTION AGAINST GLOBAL CLIMATE GOALS
Specialist sustainability consultancy, Salterbaxter, has partnered with the World Benchmarking Alliance to create a new way for businesses to achieve global sustainability targets. The framework was created after preliminary research found that two thirds of businesses are failing to drive effective communications required to achieve COP26 climate targets.
After reviewing 57 companies, just ten were found to be achieving action and communications targets around sustainability, resulting in a loss of maximum potential and ROI. Salterbaxter found that 76% of blue-chip businesses in high emissions industries that perform well on their climate actions, are still falling short in their use of communications to enable sustainable behaviour change.
Half of the businesses analysed scored highly on climate change action, but low or medium on CEO leadership that enhances sustainability. All but one of the companies analysed were identified as failing to implement effective action, communication or leadership in harmony.
Salterbaxter has pointed to the volume of generic sustainability commitments and self-congratulatory achievements made in the run up to COP26, as further evidence of a failure to engage in real action.
Kathleen Enright, managing director at Salterbaxter, says, “The only way that the goals being set by the nations’ leaders at COP26 will be achieved is with the buy-in of business leaders to drive real progress, show leadership and communicate it in a way to inspire the right kind of behaviour change. This needs to be backed by the accountability to set the climate commitments that the world needs, not the ones businesses want.”
In response to these findings, the organisations developed ProgressPoint, a multi-dimensional framework focused on achieving collective global sustainability commitments. Using data platforms and machine learning, ProgressPoint will analyse corporate performance, leadership and engagement with a focus on how businesses define, position and communicate sustainability as an urgent priority. This includes prioritising sustainability as a strategic imperative, intergrating sustainability into purpose and brand, and advocating for change with policy makers and industry.
“This is not about creating another leaderboard or ranking system. There are no winners in relative performance when you are benchmarking against the future,” adds Enright.
Find more information about the ProgressPoint framework here.
