This piece最初出现在监护人的可持续业务网站上。

随着一年的开始，大型企业将继续差不多在世界急需的可持续性中担任领导职务。尽管现在许多首席执行官现在公开将可持续性确定为其公司的关键问题，但事实证明，进行演讲更加难以捉摸。

成功的老板不会拖延。那么，为什么会议室会拖延脚步，因为可持续性挑战会对私营部门坐骑产生影响呢？作为二十年业务趋势的观察者，我看到两个相互联系的问题阻碍了进步：首先，公司未能embed sustainability into core business strategy，，，，treating it instead as a standalone issue. And second, the lack of tools that allow corporations to make this leap in their day-to-day operations.Consider the slow pace of business progress on two of the most talked about global sustainability challenges: climate change and water scarcity. ACeres-Sustainalytics评估在今年早些时候的600家大型美国公司中，只有三分之一设定了限时的温室气体降低目标。水的情况更糟。在分析的四个水密集型部门中，只有四分之一的公司评估了与水有关的风险to their operations, let alone set targets for managing water risk.

S字作为核心业务

To make sustainability a central business issue, more chief executives and finance bosses need to connect the dots between "environmental trends" and business risks – and then act on their findings.

经过2025, for example, roughly one in four of the world's population will live in areas where water scarcity is endemic. Yet industry continues to build industrial and power plants in vulnerable regions. More than half of the existing and planned power plants across the global manufacturing hub of south and south-east Asia are in areas that suffer from scarce or stressed water supplies. Such plants require large amounts of water for cooling and generation, presenting a significant operating risk, with knock-on implications for global supply chains.

同时，公司领导者必须认识到，可持续性趋势带来的业务风险和机会太大，无法通过单个业务职能甚至在公司大门内解决。以保护其业务的方式有效做出回应，需要与利益相关者（包括客户，供应商，社区以及地方和国家政府政府决策者）合作。

新一代对业务友好的工具

这听起来可能像是一个艰巨的任务。但business-friendly toolsare emerging that can help managers incorporate sustainability issues into their core strategies.

2012年11月，国际综合报告委员会published一个原型报告框架旨在帮助公司创建清晰的叙述，了解它们如何随着时间的推移创造价值。综合报告的创建将迫使财务报告的编译器传达对六种类型的首都的全部因素：财务，但也制造，人类，知识分子，自然和社会。

到2012年底，世界资源研究所发布了必威官网手机版sustainability Swot(a strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats framework). Putting a new spin on the familiar, it helps managers link specific environmental challenges for their business with broader mega-trends, such as demographic and social shifts, changing political and regulatory priorities, and technological advances. It also facilitates collaboration with colleagues, customers, and even competitors to manage the risks and opportunities that emerge.

十几家公司 - 包括主食，，，，德尔菲，，，，达能·巴西，，，，and目标- 已经对该研究所的SWOT进行了道路测试。美国领先的零售商Target使用该框架来研究特定的产品领域，环境挑战可能会对其声誉造成风险，或者对客人产生经济或健康影响，或破坏其原材料的供应。

这些指南并不孤单。其他新兴工具包括温室气体会计框架和地理water-risk evaluation databases，这使公司能够提高效率，降低运营风险并提高其底线。

通过可持续发展前进

首席执行官和财务负责人越来越多地意识到有必要进行谈话，并将可持续性更深入地融入其商业模式中。在一个德勤调查earlier this year, an impressive 49 percent of 250 chief finance officers from 14 countries said they saw a significant link between sustainability performance and financial performance.

对2013年及以后的真正考验是，公司是否可以将可持续性从筒仓中提升，并推动新一代的业务战略，能够解决全球可持续发展挑战，同时提供利润和加油增长。