Velvet Innovation Conference spearheads discussion on sustainable business
Sustainability as a key element of companies’ visions
In his keynote address, Fredrick Royan presented current and future trends connected to sustainability derived from Frost & Sullivan data. They surveyed 600 companies in three key regions: the Nordics, Benelux, and the UK and Ireland. It looked at how they perceive sustainability, what challenges they face, and what motivates them to take action to help sustainability.
- For 64% of the companies surveyed, sustainability is part of their strategic vision and management approach.
- 75% of manufacturing companies have sustainability embedded in their strategic vision.
- Architecture and engineering segments have a slight lead over the construction segment in sustainability.
How to plan a sustainability strategy?
Mike Stenson from Kingspan, the second guest keynote speaker, showcased the specific ways a large company dealing in building materials can push sustainability efforts forward. According to Kingspan company vision, they are on a 2030 Carbon Pathway to lower the carbon footprint of all business production units and individual products. Here are some of his recommendations for companies aiming to become more sustainable.
- Measure energy usage and make a plan to reduce it. (This may need investment.)
- Treat waste as a resource for reuse either in an existing business or as a new business or product.
- Measure the level of CO2 emissions, internally and externally, and plan to reduce and use to market the lower embodied carbon solutions.
- Drive from the top and don’t stay still from an innovation perspective.