The EFQM Excellence Model help us to: Ensure we have a clear and constant purpose, it helps us to focus on the delivery of results; focus on customers and how we can create value by better meeting their needs; focus by systematically applying processes and fact-based assessments to manage our business and to make us strategic decisions; identify what we need to do to develop our people and maximize their potential; derive value from meeting our responsibilities to the communities we serve; and archive sustainable excellence.
A recent study by A.T. Kearney indicates that firms with “true commitment to sustainability” outperform industry peers in the financial markets. Companies that embraced sustainability before it became in vogue, now have the competitive advantage. These companies increased production volume while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing water consumption, optimizing packaging volume.
Your company has been progressing nicely up the sustainability curve from compliance to cost savings. The next logical step is reputation and revenue generation, and itʼs here that many sustainability pros hit a roadblock. Without a CEO mandate, business units usually have little incentive to deviate from whatʼs been working in the past. Sustainability and CSR initiatives have safely been tucked away behind the scenes, dealing with internal and supply chain issues that reduce risk and cost to the business. Objections to customer-facing sustainability initiatives range from “Why put our neck out and riskgreenwashing charges?” to “Itʼs still a niche market” and “Why would we promote our values for commercial ends? Weʼre doing this because it’s right, not to make money from it.”
