Saving money is the no. 1 reason executives give for moving towards more environmentally sustainable business practices, according to a Grant Thornton report.
The firm’s 2014 International Business Report, titled Corporate social responsibility: beyond financials, draws on more than 2,500 interviews with business leaders in 34 economies and looks at what companies are doing to make their operations more sustainable and why.
It finds cost management (67 percent) emerges as the key sustainability driver, followed by customer demand (64 percent) and because it’s the “right thing to do” (62 percent).
In the firm’s 2011 report, cost management, brand building and recruitment/retention of staff all tied for first place, with 56 percent of respondents listing each of the three as the top driver towards becoming more sustainable.
The 2014 report also finds sustainability reporting has increased since 2011 and more than half of businesses now view integrated reporting as best practice.
Last month Dell reported that its flexible work program, which helped the company avoid 6,700 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions last year, also saved the company an additional $12 million in 2013.