Finding the Value in Values Is More Important Than Ever

Last week’s US election didn’t change what has to be done: The world still
needs a climate-transition plan, and overall sustainability progress, just as
much.

But the election did change expectations about regulation, sustainable
investment and the overall direction of related policies — and it likely further
emboldened opponents of sustainability.

Because of expected changes in regulation and policy, companies may be
re-examining the extent of their investments in
sustainability.
And because of emboldened opponents, companies may be looking for different ways
to talk about their environmental and social programs. This means sustainability
practitioners will need to address both types of changes in order to continue
doing what needs to be done.

Finding the value in values can really help.

Here are three things to keep in mind:

First, better identifying the ‘hidden’ business benefits
of sustainability activities — the submerged
value they
create — can dramatically change their perceived
ROI.
In fact, my experience has been that submerged value is typically 4 to 10 times
as much as visible value. (There’s more about that
here,
and in my book.)

Quantifying the true value of environmental and social programs helps justify
continued — or even expanded — investment. And it can do so regardless of
changes in government
policies.

Second, demonstrating greater
ROI also enables companies to
talk about sustainability more as a business driver. This is always beneficial.
But it is especially helpful if a company would otherwise stop talking about
its sustainability
programs
or, even worse, stop investing in them.

If sustainability opponents ratchet up their criticism of environmental and
social programs, being able to point to significant business value they
create
will provide an extra line of defense. It also helps sway audiences that are
most focused on financial
returns,
potentially adding an important set of allies to the sustainability coalition.

Third, there are many things the election didn’t change — including European
regulations,
consumer
pressures,
worsening effects of climate change and, most importantly, what needs to be done. All of
these things mean that investment in sustainability needs to grow, and quickly.
Here, too, demonstrating the value of values can help.

Last week, I was talking with the chief operating officer of a company that has
always felt that they should do what is right, socially and environmentally.
Therefore, the COO told me, they have invested in sustainability since the
beginning. However, if they could show a greater ROI, they could invest — and do
— far more.

That’s exactly what is needed: far greater investment and
action.
Whether the political changes affect your company or not, better quantifying
sustainability’s ROI can help you stay the course.

What you can do:

• Take a renewed look at your key Audiences and at the Information and
  Messaging (AIM) that is likely to resonate with them. (If you’re interested,
  here’s more about
  AIM).

• Begin surfacing submerged value, to whatever extent you can. Even if you
  can’t fully quantify it — even just a verbatim quote from a customer can be
  persuasive to some audiences — you can still prove that the only
  value sustainability can’t have is
  zero.