Financial Resource

How can an organization be environmentally sustainable and competitive in such a harsh economic world? This is the quandary facing organizations as they try and plan for the future. In a recent landmark study by global research company Accenture, 93% of CEOs determined that sustainability issues were critical to the company’s future success. This is a very important finding, conducted as part of the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken in this sector.

While the majority of organizations questioned by Accenture may have been larger than the average, the principle remains. Companies must do everything that they can, not only to be environmentally sustainable, but perhaps as importantly, to show to the rest of the world that they are making such efforts. Almost 3/4 of the CEOs surveyed cited the issues of reputation and brand management as a key driver in the decision-making.

How an organization could become environmentally competitive and sustainable amidst a harsh economic world? This is the quandary facing organizations as they try and plan for the future. A landmark study conducted recently by Accenture, a global research company, shows that 93% of the CEOs pointed to sustainability issues to be most critical to an organization’s success in the future. This is one of the most essential findings as far as businesses are concerned, being part of the most comprehensive analysis done in this sector.

Asset performance now becomes one of the most important focus points for any organization that seeks to maintain its competitive position while being environmentally responsible. While true sustainability requires good management of all resource usage, including water, waste and labor, the greatest efficiencies can be expected in the management of assets.

When an individual asset’s energy appetite is revealed, with baseline established, its future performance can be accurately revealed. In the past, while assets may have undergone a periodic maintenance schedule, often problems were only revealed when failure was apparent or imminent. If every asset could possibly be monitored real-time, with its actual energy consumption identified, any performance that is against the benchmark could be a clue of any possible problem.

One of the challenges facing management is how to incorporate a completely new and revised set of performance measuring metrics into their asset procurement and deployment strategies. In short, is it necessary to completely revise an asset inventory at a given moment in time, writing such asset value down and reintroducing each asset into the record books? In this way, from this new benchmark point onward, true sustainability can be pursued.

Prevention and monitoring are the new familiar tune. The majority of companies still reveal energy at a meter level and are thus unable to ascertain the truth value of each asset. In a complicated organization, thousands of assets can determine whether an organization is seen to be sustainable. Without a means of individually managing, no company can hope to take good care of its brand and reputation.

Carbon should not be viewed as a threat or a liability. Rather, it should be viewed as the catalyst to push the organization to reveal its absolute asset productivity, probably for the first time. Asset performance, when optimized, would reduce an organization’s energy liabilities and could reveal additional profits.

IT departments will become increasingly focused on corporate social responsibility and the need to use gathered asset performance data to drive business decision-making. Sustainability will become the core fabric of the organization.

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