Michiel Verhoeven, Managing Director at SAP UK&I, says many businesses are falling into the trap of focusing their efforts on just one area of sustainability in what may be referred to as ‘plastic straw syndrome’.
The last few weeks have seen businesses reach tipping point in their need to embed sustainable practices, policies and mindset to their organisations.
The damning findings of the recent IPCC report have come as an important reminder to businesses that it’s the action they take now that will impact the change we need to see.
With claims that the window of opportunity for climate action is “brief and rapidly closing” before irreversible damage is done, businesses must act now, and fast.
Just like what we saw in the immediate aftermath of COP26, many businesses are taking responsibility and setting themselves ambitious targets.
Yet, a sizeable majority are falling into the trap of focusing their efforts on just one area of sustainability in what may be referred to as ‘plastic straw syndrome’, whereby one area of sustainability diverts attention away from other equally important aspects.
While it’s important that businesses are taking any steps in the right direction, in order to enact meaningful change, business leaders need to take a holistic approach to environmental action.
While it’s important that businesses are taking any steps in the right direction, in order to enact meaningful change, business leaders need to take a holistic approach to environmental action.
This means accounting for the whole picture and evaluating impact across the entire business value chain.
However, their ability to have sight of their environmental responsibilities can be limited by the tools they have to hand. The inability to unearth this transparency is leading to uncertainty in terms of green commitments.
In fact, 27% of business leaders have reported a lack of confidence that their sustainability data is complete and covers the required scope.
In turn, this results in only a partial picture of their commitments and responsibilities, causing businesses to act on a few limited areas that they can change – aka, plastic straw syndrome.
But, through the right tools and data insights, organisations can begin on the path to truly impactful environmental action.
‘Plastic straw syndrome’ and the sustainability blind spot
With many companies committing to net-zero and elaborate strategies to reduce emissions, such as carbon capture and green energy, carbon has become a key focus for businesses looking to take environmental action.
The worry is that any sort of obsession with, say, reducing the carbon footprint of mobility or energy production, will invariably overlook other key crucial factors that businesses need to be accountable for, too – from biodiversity to deforestation.
This ‘plastic straw syndrome’ – as succinctly put by Professor Peter Hopkinson in an SAP sustainability roundtable last year – often happens when governments, consumers or businesses fixate on one sustainability challenge to the detriment of the wider picture.
Companies need a broader overview to have a real understanding of the impact their practices are having on both the environment and surrounding communities.
In the business world, carbon has become the lightning rod for this sort of attention, in the same way that five years ago, the idea of replacing plastic straws with paper equivalents felt like it would have a major impact on the climate crisis.
Companies need a broader overview to have a real understanding of the impact their practices are having on both the environment and surrounding communities.
This means taking into account factors such as the values and initiatives of suppliers they work with to the source of raw materials.
Without these kinds of insights, businesses can’t expect to make the necessary progress to help avert global climate disaster.
Enhancing insights across the business
Instead of tunnelling one specific area, businesses need to employ a ‘sustainability by design’ mindset, and this starts with data.
Through solutions that provide visibility of material flows, businesses can track their lifecycle from source to market.
In turn, this promotes improved decision making and allows for a more targeted approach across the business value chain as leaders can embed practices from the outset to reduce waste and pollution, minimise emissions and promote a circular economy.
At SAP, we set out to not only be the drivers of sustainable action, but also exemplify environmental best practice.
From working with partners that mirror our values and commitments, to helping customers to successfully transform their businesses into intelligent, sustainable enterprises – we put sustainability at the heart of everything we do, which permeates throughout the business and into new policy and direction.
The value we place on sustainability has meant that we’ve accelerated our product roadmap, empowering our customers and partners to track their environmental footprint and monitor their operational performance via Responsible Design and Production.
We put this into practice through our Waste Insights Project where we partnered with like-minded sustainability partners, including Topolytics, Coca-Cola, DS Smith and Brewdog, who analysed data across their businesses and identified areas to recapture waste materials using innovative technology that promotes transparency.
Through the insights gathered, this helped to empower governments, investors, waste managers and consumer industries to define strategic priorities and implement recycling infrastructure where it’s needed most.
A necessary transformation for the future
So, how can businesses avoid falling into the ‘plastic straw syndrome’ trap? Well, you can only action what you can understand.
For me, understanding where businesses need to make improvements across their value chain is all about measuring their current impact, and making iterative changes to improve it.
Then it’s about using that organisational data to bridge up to high-level sustainability targets and using that as the barometer for the improvements you are making.
Only then will your organisational sustainability practices be all-encompassing and fundamental.
