The combination of technology and corporate sustainability is, like that between innovation and sustainability that we have already discussed, increasingly crucial for today’s businesses.
Indeed, if technology, and innovation more generally, is the driver of the sustainable transition, sustainability increasingly guides and directs innovation paths within companies, becoming a de facto strategic dimension.
Hence the increasingly strategic weight that the technology-business sustainability pair assumes in the evaluation of the growth paths of companies, whether large or small.
If we add to this premise a reference context that is increasingly attentive to these issues, starting already with consumers who are much more sensitive to the topics we are dealing with, and without forgetting the role played by lending institutions in sustainable financing and European directives and regulations, it is easy to understand that for any company addressing these issues takes on a fundamental importance in order to remain on the market and improve its competitiveness.
How to integrate sustainability into business innovation processes?
This is certainly a complex and articulated answer, on the basis of which we would like to share some useful insights to frame the topic.
- First of all, sustainability is not simply the implementation of one or more initiatives related to reducing one’s environmental impact, but represents a real way of “being” and “acting” that must become part of corporate culture.
- Therefore, the company must understand how sustainability fits into its corporate values and what dimensions of sustainability it could have the greatest impact in according to its possibilities. These elements are critical in determining the strategic direction the company will give to its sustainable innovation plans.
- Once the strategic direction is defined, it will be possible to consider different types of initiatives with which to pursue its goals.
And it is in this last point that the strategic role of the technology-business sustainability pair comes in, aimed at first assessing new technologies on the market and then figuring out how to integrate them properly in the face of growing the company’s competitive advantage.
3 examples of technology applied to corporate sustainability
It is now clear that in sustainable innovation processes, technology can be seen as the tool with which to realize the company’s stated commitment to developing a more sustainable business model.
We have already seen 5 different ways in which innovation and sustainability are interconnected. But what happens in reality? Here are 3 examples of companies that have concretely grounded the marriage of technology and corporate sustainability.
- A prime example is “X-Farm,” which has made technology its driver of innovation. It is an application developed to improve efficiency in land use by farms, with improvements also made in water management and general production monitoring.
- A second example is “Fairphone,” the first sustainable smartphone that revolutionized the typical phone business model by focusing on maximizing a much-discussed aspect in the industry: product durability.
- Another example involves a high-tech sector for sustainable innovation: the transportation sector. The obligation to produce only electric cars from 2030 is certainly a major challenge for the European automotive world. Equally exciting are the new trends on the use of electric-powered micro-mobility vehicles (scooters, pedal bikes) and the development of business models based on the sharing economy to rent cars with a “simple” click from your phone.
All of these examples see both corporate sustainability and innovation and technology as undisputed players in the entire economic system, without exception. This is why the transition to sustainability is now an inexorable and inevitable change for all market players, large and small businesses alike.
This means that we too must be ready to face this change because, if directed and managed correctly, we are convinced that it can represent a great opportunity for growth, especially for SMEs.
In this, we at Roncucci&Partners bring concrete support, reasoning with companies on what it means for them to be sustainable and on what might be the most correct paths to start structuring a real path toward corporate sustainability, which starts from the definition of one’s “purpose” to accompany it toward obtaining a recognized and expendable evaluation also at an international level.
At Roncucci&Partners we help companies develop themselves and their business, embrace change and evolve to thrive in a world that is increasingly complicated, insidious and requires great expertise. We do this by applying punctual methods and rigorous strategies, the result of many years of experience and the richness of the numerous success stories we have conducted all over the world. Passion and method are indeed our guides to enhance the present and build the future.
