New research from Mastercard reveals that implementing sustainable business practices is considered by many Australian business leaders to be a significant but very necessary challenge in the years ahead, with 76 per cent of business leaders surveyed identifying sustainability as critical for success in their industry.
This comes on the back of research revealing that 81 per cent of Australian consumers are already actively seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. In that report 48 per cent of consumers stated they would actively avoid shopping at a business that did not source its products sustainably, while 13 per cent said they would only purchase from sustainable businesses by 2024.
The study noted that sustainability is a deciding factor as well for potential employees. Of the 51 per cent of Australians currently either actively looking or considering new employment opportunities in 2022, 43 per cent said they would not work for an employer that did not have an active sustainability plan in place.
The study also noted that Australia’s small businesses appear to be taking meaningful action when it comes to sustainability. Though 17 per cent of SMEs admit to not knowing where to start on their sustainability journey, 70 per cent said they are both actively exploring how to operate more sustainably and taking steps to improve their practices within the next year. And 77 per cent are looking to support community-led initiatives such as tree planting collectives, local clean up days and recycling programs.
According to Richard Wormald, Division President at Mastercard in Australasia, the research reinforces that implementing sustainable business practices must be a key agenda item for 2022 and beyond, alongside the need for leaders to take collective action against climate change.
“Tackling the global climate crisis isn’t possible without everyone’s involvement, no matter how big or small their footprint is, and Australians are looking to organisations to step up and do their part in protecting the planet,” Wormald said. “Taking collective action provides an opportunity to reduce overheads and time-consuming administration for SMEs while contributing to a greater output and result for the environment.”
Australian consumers and business leaders are open to using technology to become more sustainable (61 per cent and 72 per cent, respectively). And 84 per cent of consumers who make efforts to track their carbon footprint or sustainable behaviour do so via technology such as apps or wearables, while 25 per cent said they would purchase more products and services from brands that allowed them to track their carbon consumption. On the business side, 72 per cent of leaders are interested in adopting new technologies to improve their sustainable practices, including data analytics (45 per cent), automation technology (42 per cent) and blockchain (32 per cent).
While being green is perceived by some to be more costly, 55 per cent of businesses are confident that implementing these initiatives will increase their profitability in 2022. Over half, 53 per cent, of Australian businesses say they intend to diversify their product or service offering this year to make it more sustainable, meeting the growing customer demand for sustainability, with 53 per cent of customers saying that making purchases that benefit the environment is on a par with supporting local Australian businesses.
