Investigating the Business Case for Sustainability: Seven Steps That Could Make You Millions

[编者注：这是关于如何查明未来论坛的David Bent for Funer for The Future的三部分文章的最后一部分。必威体育2018这是第1部分and第2部分。]

良好的环境管理为电信集团BT节省了超过7亿美元。它使用清晰的分析和基本财务工具来确定可持续性的业务案例。必威体育2018这是您可以自己应用的步骤。

找到业务案例是可持续性专业人员的“圣杯”，这个目标有时似乎很难，但是实际上有许多不同的业务案例用于必威体育2018可持续性项目，变革计划和倡议。

在以前的帖子中“关于寻找可持续性倡议的商业案例的六堂课”必威体育2018and“从金融中获得买入的四个技巧。”This final post goes into the technical part -- seven steps to investigate the business case.

我会说明工作Forum for the Futuredid withBT，这有助于电信集团在五年内节省了7.2亿美元（4.42亿英镑）的运营成本：

1. Identify what you're investigating and why.

Obvious, but you'll be surprised how poorly people define boundaries. Are you looking at the sustainability drivers for the whole organization or only a particular project or initiative? Are you looking at the worth of an entire change program, or do you want to add sustainability-related criteria into a decision-making process like capital expenditure budgeting? Make sure you know your scope.

你也应该很清楚wh是的，您正在调查。您将如何使用结果？您要刺激的变化是什么？

BT有兴趣确定报告和营销的良好环境实践的经济利益。至关重要的是，他们将其缩小到一些细节：运输，能源和电信工作实践。

2. Prioritize value drivers.

股东价值 - 公司对其所有者的价值 - 由某些因素驱动：营业额增长；利润增长；减少资本支出；降低风险;竞争优势的持续时间；税率降低和资本成本降低。确定哪些是您调查的关键。（不同的作家的列表略有不同。这是从“寻找股东价值：管理绩效驱动力”）。

对于BT，价值驱动程序很明显：保证金增长。

3.确定相关的业务案例。

每个价值驱动程序可能都有许多不同可能的业务案例 - 我们汇编了从可持续性到股东价值的17个途径清单（请参阅必威体育2018这里）。如果我们错过了任何东西，请保持联系。

The crucial thing is to identify the causality: How does A lead to B lead to C, and so on to an ultimate financial impact? It is this assumed pathway that you will be testing.

BT found that each piece of environmental good practice creates a different causal chain creating value.

例如，增加家庭工人的数量有两个关键效果：首先，办公室使用削减的办公室成本较小；其次，在家工作的人在某些时候没有旅行去做更多的工作，从而有效提高了生产力。这两个结果还减少了净温室气体排放。

4.选择财务技术。

每种类型的业务案例都需要适当的财务技术（最后详细介绍）。关键是要找到一种对您的内部受众可信的技术，通常是金融功能。尽可能使用相同的方法。

In the BT example, measuring cost savings is a management accounting question. The issue is how long can you claim them? We assumed changes five years previously had become normal practice, and so have a five-year rolling gap (i.e. effectively we compared the costs in 2008 with 2003).

5.进行财务分析。

幸运的是，您将获得金融功能为您完成。BT从五年到2009年确定了4.42亿英镑（7.2亿美元）的总储蓄。您可以看到更多这里。

6. Use your findings in the business.

您确定了why您正在第一步进行调查。现在您有了结果，请使用它们。

BT以不同的方式使用了结果。它已经披露了它们，作为与利益相关者和股东沟通可持续性价值的一部分。必威体育2018它已经用它们来建立对整个业务可持续性业务案例的认识。必威体育2018

最重要的是，它们是营销BT服务（例如远程办公）的强大工具。结果说：我们自己这样做，这就是我们节省了多少。

7.学习和嵌入。

Finally, what have you learnt about investigating this business case? How will you do it differently next time? Do you need to set up an information management system to collect the data automatically? How can you embed the results in regular decision-making? What do the results mean for sustainability in the company more generally?

这三个帖子来自论坛的工作更好的决定，实际价值。We've nearly finished piloting various techniques with our partners. By the end of April we hope to have a tool which takes people through the steps above, including directing them to the appropriate financial technique. If you are interested in seeing a draft, or have suggestions please do get in touch with我。

大卫·本特is head of Business Strategies atForum for the Future, a nonprofit sustainable development organization based in the United Kingdom.

Image by sxc userpenywise。

{相关内容}