recall sitting in a conference, listening to an SME owner from the retail industry who had taken a bold step- he decided to assess the impact of their business activity by quantifying their annual emissions to address the diverse environmental impact stemming from their operations. Initially, the internal stakeholders of the company questioned whether this was truly necessary.
Fast forward two years, and the results speak for themselves. The carbon footprint assessment enabled the online retailer to note areas of improvement, in this case optimizing transport routes. The initiative aided the SME to reduce their environmental impact by grouping orders and opting for less polluting modes of transportation. Additionally, consolidating orders further led to cost savings with logistics. This begs the question: was this an expense or an investment?
The answer depends on your perspective. As the old adage goes, the glass is either half full or half empty. To walk the environmental, social and governance (ESG) path or not is very much the same – the lens through which you view it matters significantly.
At elementsix, a Dubai-based advisory firm that offers turnkey solutions in the fields of sustainability and carbon abatement, our carbon measurement experts guide clients through their ESG journey and have thus witnessed, firsthand, the transformative power of sustainable practices in SMEs.
For those focused solely on short-term gains, ESG might indeed seem like an unnecessary expense. Initial costs can be substantial, and immediate returns aren’t always apparent. This viewpoint, however, fails to account for the long-term benefits that often accompany well-planned ESG strategies.
