Evidence Based Quality Improvement for Most Businesses Sustainability

Abstract

The importance of applying sustainability in business has never been more important than it is today, with 62% of consumers willing to change their purchasing habits in order to be more environmentally friendly. Yet, companies are rushing to adopt sustainable practices when they miss the mark. In fact, from 2018 to 2022, only 47 percent of the material topics were related to Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) pillars which means there is a huge gap in comprehensive sustainability implementation. What we’re seeing as we transform is that sustainability is leading us from consumer loyalty to employee satisfaction. IBM research concludes that 70 per cent of employees believe sustainability programs are an important ‘pull’ factor for employers, and that 77 per cent of executives believe sustainability is also a ‘push’ factor in converting customers to repeat buyers. But here, even with such statistics, many business struggle in implementing effective sustainability initiatives to handle three pillars of sustainability – environmental, social, economic. In reading this article we will explore why most businesses fail with Sustainability and how evidence based quality improvement methods can be used to turn things around. I’ll take you through some practical solutions that eliminate weeds in the common pitfalls others make when embarking on a sustainability journey and in trying to find ways to create meaning, meaning in any organizational sustainability.