Advancing sustainability strategies

Pure Strategies helps companies assess materiality, including double materiality assessment (DMA) as described in the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This includes assessing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics from both external/impact and internal/financial perspectives. Pure Strategies’ approach ensures that the most relevant topics and sub-topics are prioritized by engaging internal and external stakeholders through interviews and/or surveys, incorporating market benchmarks, and carefully aligning to regulatory guidance.

Pure Strategies has been helping companies build sustainability strategies since 1998. Over these decades, we have seen that a few steps are useful when developing an effective sustainability program, including 1. Understanding the business case for the program (e.g., drivers, opportunities), 2. Identifying sustainability program priorities, informed by a materiality assessment, 3. Determining the company’s level of ambition for sustainability generally and for the material topics (e.g., move/lead, manage, or monitor), 4. Assessing baselines and establishing targets for priority areas, 5. Developing plans and governance to support the sustainability program.

Research consistently shows that companies that have robust sustainably programs outperform their competitors and gain business value from cost savings, risk reduction, and growth opportunities. Companies that integrate sustainability across the business tend to gain the most value. This means that responsibility and accountability for sustainability outcomes are shared across the business, from executives to functional roles. Further, sustainability is incorporated into key business processes and translated into business terms, such as including sustainability in product development stage gates and innovation evaluation criteria, or part of supplier qualification and evaluation, among other approaches.

To achieve their sustainability or ESG ambitions, most companies must engage their suppliers (e.g., Tier 1, Tier 2, co-manufacturers). Pure Strategies helps companies work with their suppliers to advance on environmental and social priorities. This includes empowering suppliers by engaging, educating, and executing on the sustainability topics. For example, it is important to provide clear expectations to suppliers, including supplier status in business meetings, providing benchmarking data and feedback to suppliers, and minimizing data collection demands on suppliers. Further, companies can help suppliers by meeting them where they are and helping them identify and learn how to progress with training and support. Finally, companies should recognize supplier progress, incentivize achievement, monitor progress, and find ways to partner and collaborate on solutions.