Sustainability - from green hype to business value
It is important to notice that the question is no longer "if", but "when" and "to what extent" sustainability will impact this sector.
The debate, which used to center mainly on reactive environmental concerns, has progressed; it is now focused on the proactive role sustainability can play in improving the effectiveness of the entire value-chain and in creating opportunities, thus making it a truly transformational initiative. Sustainability has become a critical business driver involving operations, brand reputation and innovation.
Sustainability is a journey - where are you on the path?
On the Sustainability Path from compliance to innovation and competitive advantage, sustainability is a business driver. Being "sustainable" is not just what you do, it's how efficiently and effectively you do it, who you are perceived to be for doing it, and the long-term result of that what, how and who.
Technology is enabling sustainability by facilitating compliance while simultaneously providing insights into process improvement and mitigating diverse business risks.
Sustainability is a journey, and your company does not need to do it all overnight. What is important is to fully understand the strategic concept, identify the key issues, and capture the associated opportunities.
Sustainability requires a holistic approach
Creating your own Sustainability Roadmap is essential to align your corporate values with your bottom-line. What you are looking to achieve is a harmonized approach based on what works for your company and your market. Sustainability is all about your company's broader commitment and intent (strategic development) and improving your results (tactical implementation).
"While sustainability starts with corporate values, it must create value". Sustainability requires a holistic approach that relies on transformative systems thinking for strategy development and operational optimization. Tieto helps our Customers to avoid “green blindness” by acknowledging that a sustainable business is first and foremost about economics and creating innovative products and services which enhance differentiation and advantage.
How can you move from values-based sustainability to sustainable value creation?
The majority of today's top business leaders have realised the importance sustainability elements bring to the balance sheet.
The mission statement on UPM-Kymmene's home page tells us a lot about the transformation taking place in the industry: "UPS leads the integration of bio and forest industries into a new, sustainable and innovation--driven biofuture industry." Anttoni Vesterinen, Senior Vice President at Tieto Manufacturing, Logistics and Trade, says: "There is no way to stay a manufacturer of only pulp and paper from wood fiber."
To be profitable now and in the future, each of us has to focus on the scale of our core competencies and outsource all non-value adding activities. Achieving scale and scalability requires global simplification and standardization of business processes. To drive this, many leading European companies have turned to Tieto for standardized mill-level execution solutions integrated with enterprise-level multi-mill customer service, logistics and planning solutions.
Conclusion: Sustainability 2.0 is technology-enabled
Global sustainability issues, challenges and opportunities will not be solved by technology alone; however, we cannot address them without technology. Tieto and the ICT industry are giving companies greater flexibility in how broadly they can define and develop their offerings (both products and services), markets and customer influencers. In this new age of the "linked economy," m-commerce, and smart technology, sustainability can be used to ensure you are integrated with all your stakeholders, anytime, anywhere.
Sustainability is creating significant impact and opportunities where business, technology and innovation intersect. Leading pulp and paper companies are creating real business value when they combine 2.0 technologies with innovative differentiation and a long-term focus on sustainability.