Magnus Ahlqvist is president & CEO of Securitas, a security solutions partner with world-leading technology and expertise.
We’ve been on a pendulum swing of innovation and technological advancements in recent years, achieving great progress in many areas. Without question, we’ve seen unprecedented developments and experienced industry transformations at a pace unlike any other in modern history.
But as with every pendulum swing, there comes an inflection point that offers a chance to pause and reflect. I believe we’re at that point now, inching nearer to the Fifth Industrial Revolution and reflecting on our progress—not on the cost, as such, but on how we can ensure our momentum continues sustainably, balancing innovation with environmental responsibility.
For organizations, this moment offers a small window of opportunity to course correct and ensure we’re on the right path while meaningful change is still possible. And we, as business leaders, share a collective responsibility to take action.
This is something we’ve embedded in our ethos at Securitas, a global security solutions partner whose climate leadership was recently recognized by the U.S. government. Prioritizing sustainability as part of our business strategy has served us well not just in our ability to support clients—who increasingly demand a partner that aligns with their own sustainability goals—but in virtually every area of our business. We approach sustainability as an accelerator of our business goals and see it playing a vital role in talent recruitment, product and service innovation, stakeholder engagement and more.
In this article, I’ll share some practical insights from my own experience leading Securitas to help you effectively integrate sustainability into the core of your business.
It’s worth noting that while environmental sustainability is the focus of this article, true corporate stewardship encompasses much more, including governance (such as ensuring ethical practices and compliance) and social responsibility (such as advancing diversity and inclusion, striving for fair wages and investing in employee development).
You need a sustainability strategy.
There was a time when a company’s sustainability efforts operated in a silo, confined to a single department that often lacked integration with broader business goals. Today, that couldn’t be further from reality, as sustainability has become a priority investment area for many businesses.
In fact, more than half (52%) of organizations expected to increase their investments in sustainability at the start of 2024—a significant difference from 2023, when only one-third reported the same. However, the challenge remains in ensuring sustainability doesn’t exist as a series of unstructured, albeit well-intentioned, initiatives. Rather, sustainability must be a dedicated strategy that serves as both a guide and a measurable performance metric for your business.
This was an important learning for us at Securitas. While we’ve had sustainability focus areas and targets for many years, we needed to develop a formal sustainability strategy to take the next step forward. Doing so puts a framework around your focus areas and builds real, actionable, measurable activities that are clearly and purposefully aligned with your business strategy. This helps embed sustainability into every facet of your operations.
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
A sustainability strategy is only as effective as the data underpinning it. Or, as the World Economic Forum aptly points out: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Without measurable goals and key performance indicators (KPIs), even the most ambitious targets risk becoming empty promises.
Setting commitments, alone, doesn’t drive change. You must track and measure your progress against concrete metrics, ensuring that your activities deliver value to your business, clients and the global community.
We’ve seen this trend across global organizations: A tendency to announce broad commitments to reducing their environmental impact without having the necessary tracking or reporting mechanisms in place. Another gap for many businesses is a failure to measure Scope 3 emissions, which take into account a business’ indirect environmental footprint across the entire value chain.
Without this data, you’re missing the full picture, and your sustainability strategy may ultimately fall short of its potential. Not to mention, these metrics are increasingly important as we move closer to mandatory climate reporting, due to growing sustainability disclosure regulations like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the SEC’s Final Rule and California’s climate reporting bills.
Measurable data and reporting capabilities not only prepare you for regulations like these and others on the horizon, but they hold your business accountable for turning ambitious goals into tangible progress.
Hold your leaders accountable.
People are key to driving your sustainability strategy forward—and that starts with leadership. Holding your leaders accountable for their contributions sends a powerful message that sustainability is a shared responsibility that starts at the top.
Incorporate sustainability goals as incentive targets to ensure leaders are directly responsible for progress in this area. At Securitas, we’ve implemented this through our Long-Term Incentive (LTI) program, which includes the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as a performance condition for our leaders. This ensures that compensation is tied to the company’s sustainability, as well as its future earnings and value growth.
This type of approach sets the tone for the entire organization, demonstrating the concrete value your business places on sustainability. And, importantly, it helps to turn sustainability into a reflex, not an afterthought.
Progress is powered by collaboration.
No single company can solve the climate crisis. It takes all of us working together to ensure this pendulum swings in the right direction.
Indeed, a sustainable future requires collaboration with suppliers, clients and partners. This is ever true as regulations like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, set to take effect in 2027, will require companies to address both social and environmental risks throughout their value chains.
So, let this serve as an important reminder: The choices we business leaders make now will have a significant impact on the trajectory of our future. The same enthusiasm and investment we’ve poured into technological innovation must also be put toward sustainability. This is the only way to ensure our momentum is balanced by responsible growth and a collective stewardship that contributes to the kind of progress we can all take pride in.
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