Op-ed by Wesley Wilson, Head of North America, The Consumer Goods Forum.
New York Climate Week has long been one of the most significant events on the global sustainability calendar. Traditionally, it has been a showcase for organisations and leaders to announce bold pledges and cast their vision for the future.
Looking back on this year’s Week [which ran from 21-28 September], one thing was clear: the energy and participation were as strong as ever, but the conversation had changed. It featured a new tone that is both more grounded and practical.
As retail and consumer goods face an increasing range of challenges to serving their customers well, the tools and topics that have long been treated as standalone issues have, in many cases, moved to the center of the conversation. Why is this?
The ‘sustainability toolkit’
This shift marks a broader embrace of what leading sustainability practitioners have known for some time – that the ‘sustainability toolkit’, when deeply integrated with the engine room of businesses, has the potential to accelerate delivery of both customer value and business benefit in addition to providing sustainability impact.
Two words came up repeatedly in my conversations with CEOs and Chief Sustainability Officers: speed and simplicity. Speed, because companies need to respond to shifting market dynamics in real time. Simplicity, because amidst a landscape of overlapping standards, emerging technologies, and evolving consumer expectations, businesses need clear frameworks to help them prioritise and act with sustainability in mind.
To speed and simplicity, we should add a ‘third S’ – systems, which has always been at the core of any serious sustainability toolkit. Understanding systems is fundamental to knowing how and where to act with speed, agility, and focus to build resilient supply chains, improve the lives of our customers, and future-proof your business model.
Business strategy must always confront short-term pressures, but leaders balance this need for short-term success with the long-term strengths that systems provide.
A changing world
For years, the sustainability toolkit has been providing advanced insight on many of today’s most prominent trends to savvy senior leaders – whether it be increasing consumer demands for healthier products, the shift to regionalisation, concerns about the impacts of plastic waste, and the need for supply chain resilience, to name a few.
Combined with the new capabilities introduced by AI, we are at the beginning of an exciting new era of impact – driven by the interests of customers and a changing world. Looking ahead and delivering against this potential with speed and agility – with our partners – is our focus at The Consumer Goods Forum.
The sustainability conversation isn’t slowing down. It’s maturing – and that might be the most hopeful sign yet that we’re ready to deliver the scale of change the world needs.
Learn more about The Consumer Goods Forum at www.theconsumergoodsforum.com. [Photo: New York Climate Week/Flickr]
