Amidst the growing climate crisis, many of us want to do our bit and make more responsible buying choices. Indeed, two out of three consumers can now be categorized as “belief-driven buyers,” and more than two-thirds expect brands to care about environmental issues. Therefore, brands that want to remain relevant must embrace sustainability and eliminate, or at least reduce, the environmental costs of doing business.

1. HOW TO BECOME A MORE
SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT
COMPANY

2. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Amidst the growing climate crisis, many of us want to do our bit and make more
responsible buying choices. Indeed, two out of three consumers can now be categorized
as “belief-driven buyers,” and more than two-thirds expect brands to care about
environmental issues. Therefore, brands that want to remain relevant must embrace
sustainability and eliminate, or at least reduce, the environmental costs of doing
business.
HOW TO BECOME A MORE SUSTAINABLE AND
RESILIENT COMPANY

3. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
REDUCING SUPPLY CHAIN EMISSIONS
The supply chain is an obvious place to start. According to the World Economic
Forum, eight supply chains account for more than 50 percent of global greenhouse
gas emissions: food, construction, fashion, fast-moving consumer goods, electronics,
automotive, professional services and freight. If companies in these sectors can
address their supply chain emissions, they will create a bigger impact than solely
focusing on their direct operations and power consumption. They can multiply their
climate impact, in other words – with only a marginal increase on product costs,
according to the WEF. Of course, I’d also encourage businesses outside of these
sectors to look at reducing their supply chain emissions.

4. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
What does this look like in practice? The WEF insight report linked above sets out steps to
decarbonize the supply chain, but let’s explore a few brief examples of companies that are doing
this in practice:
 Danone runs a training program for farmers, designed to help them move to sustainable
farming practices.
 Google helps its suppliers identify energy efficiency opportunities, and helps them to
implement these opportunities.
 Apple has a Supplier Clean Energy Program, through which it is directly investing in
renewable energy generation. The company aims to achieve 100 percent clean energy in its
supply chain by 2030.
 H&M and Maersk have worked together to develop an initiative that uses biofuels to enable
low-carbon shipping of H&M products.
 Steel manufacturer SSAB partnered with utility company Vattenfall and mining company
LKAB to enable the production of fully emissions-free steel.
 Walmart developed a supplier engagement program to help suppliers set their own
emissions reduction targets and take practical steps to achieve those goals.

5. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
For me, sustainability isn’t just about your environmental footprint, but also your
social footprint. In other words, how your company treats others in the supply
chain matters. Dutch chocolate brand Tony’s Chocolonely is a shining example of
how businesses can reduce the true social costs of doing business. For example,
Tony’s is working to make the cocoa industry fair trade and free from slavery and
child labor. The company also partners with non-profit Justdiggit to restore and
regreen dry lands in Africa, where the majority of cocoa beans are grown.

6. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
There are plenty of other ways organizations can boost their sustainability:
 Understand your current impact. For example, you can examine your energy usage and water intake,
and work with energy and water providers to cut your usage.
 Switch to renewable energy. This is one of the most powerful ways your business can make a difference.
 Reduce waste, reuse and recycle. From reducing energy waste to recycling materials like paper and
plastic, there are many ways to reduce, reuse and recycle across the organization.
 Audit the products, materials and services you use and switch to sustainable alternatives. From the
roll in employee toilets and the products used by cleaners, to your web hosting provider, shipping vendors
and software providers – there’s often a carbon-neutral alternative out there.
 Switch to sustainable packaging for your products. Compostable packaging is ideal. Recyclable
packaging at a bare minimum.
 Allow people to work remotely, where appropriate, because fewer people traveling for work means
lower emissions. And where you do expect people to travel to work, offer them incentives to travel by bike
or public transport (bike loans, season ticket loans, subsidized fares, etc.).
LOOKING BEYOND THE SUPPLY CHAIN

7. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
FROM SUSTAINABILITY TO RESILIENCE
There’s no question in my mind that building a sustainable business is central to long-term
survival and success. Therein lies the link between sustainability and resilience – after all,
resilience is all about building a company that can survive into the future.
It’s an interesting time to be thinking about resilience. 2020 was a hugely disruptive year for
society as a whole, with a worsening climate crisis and political and social unrest on top of a
global pandemic. For businesses, it was a year that challenged the very concept of what it
means to be “prepared.” Couple these ongoing challenges with rapid technological
advancement and I believe we’re now entering an age where businesses will regularly face
disruption of one kind or another. Indeed, a global survey by Deloitte revealed six out of 10
business leaders believe we’ll see either occasional or regular business disruption going
forward. Which makes resilience more important than ever.

8. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Cyber-resilience and digital advancement are key to resilience in the 21st century. During
the pandemic, organizations that were able to pivot to digital channels or accelerate
their digital transformation were clearly better equipped to survive. But what if the next
pandemic is a digital one – a virus that takes down the internet, for example? If that were
to happen, businesses with a physical infrastructure would be better equipped to survive,
while those solely reliant on digital channels would face a major existential threat.
Therefore, resilience in the fourth industrial revolution may mean balancing digital with
other channels. As I said, it’s an interesting time to rethink resilience, and consider what
resilience will mean going forward.

9. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Read more about these and other future trends in my new book, Business Trends
in Practice: The 25+ Trends That are Redefining Organizations. Packed with real-
world examples, it cuts through the hype to present the key trends that will shape
the businesses of the future.

10. © 2021 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker,
futurist, and a strategic business & technology advisor to governments and
companies. He helps organisations improve their business performance, use data
more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as
artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is
a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for
Forbes. Every day Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers
and shares content that reaches millions of readers.

11. hello@bernardmarr.com
www.bernardmarr.com