It begins with an effort to communicate the business value of sustainability in terms investors already understand: the potential to drive revenue growth from sustainability-advantaged products, improve productivity (and margins) from sustainability initiatives and measurably reduce key sustainability-related risks to revenue and reputation.
Understanding how effectively a business is exploiting the new global force in business in simple terms may be a key indicator that every analyst needs to know.
n 2012, DuPont generated more than $10bn from environmentally advantaged products
Pirelli reports 45% (or €2.84bn) of their €6.3bn 2012 total revenue comesfrom their "green performance" products, up from 36% in 2010.
GM earns $1bn a year turning waste into revenue
Praxair saves more than $100m per year in sustainability-driven productivity savings through aggregating benefits from thousands of closely managed projects, yielding more than 4% improvement in their annual operating income.
Philips earned 45% of its more than $24bn 2012 revenue from sustainability-advantaged products