Record high in businesses which think climate change is impacting them

Tuesday 19 July 2022

Results from the Sustainable Business Initiative (SBI) have shown an increased focus on sustainability from Guernsey businesses and a record high which think climate change is already impacting their business.

The third annual survey, run by the Chamber of Commerce group, showed “clear trends”. This year’s results showed a 10% increase in businesses which said environmental sustainability was “very important” to them. A further 24% said it was “somewhat important”.

When asked to complete the sentence “we care about environmental issues because”, 97% of respondents answered “it’s the right thing to do”. This was an increase from 79% in 2020 and 85% in 2021.

Pictured: 64% of respondents believe that climate change is already affecting their business.

The survey showed that pressure from clients is also encouraging companies to focus on environmental issues, with 63% stating “customers want us to”, up from 48% in 2021 and 42% in 2020.  Pressure from other areas is also up across the stakeholder spectrum, such as from employees and society expectations.

Those surveyed also saw business benefits from focusing on environmental issues such as “it is important in managing risk” and “reducing cost”. A record 64% of respondents believe that climate change is already affecting their business.

Over three quarters of businesses have a plan in place for reducing their environmental impact. While close to one third of businesses have an informal plan, more businesses are publishing their plans, with 24% doing so this year, up from 18% the year before.

Higher numbers of companies have undertaken an environmental framework to help guide their sustainability work. There was also a significant increase of companies which have identified and appointed a sustainability champion (56% versus 32% in 2021) and more companies are putting environmental impact or sustainability as a regular board agenda item. 

Pictured: The survey showed an increase in businesses focusing on sustainability. 

SBI Co-lead, Rollo De Sausmarez, was encouraged by the results of the survey.

“While it is excellent news that more companies are planning to reduce their environmental impact, informal plans to do so aren’t as effective as formal ones,” he said.

“To get the most out of them, making those plans public to stakeholders as soon as possible without overpromising is the best approach.  One way to do so is to adopt an environmental framework, appoint sustainability champions and ensure the board considers these efforts as a regular agenda item. 

“This will help ensure there is no disconnect between good intentions and actually driving change.”

When asked what the biggest barriers to businesses doing more to reduce their environmental impact, the top response was “there were no barriers”, replacing the top answer in 2019 “lack of awareness about what can be done”.

The next three responses were financial, including impact on cash flow or profit margins, lack of resources and not enough financial payback on actions or investments.

Pictured: The Sustainable Business Initiative helps businesses formalise plans to reduce their environmental impact. 

SBI Co-lead, Jennifer Strachan, added: “There is still a significant number of respondents who state that there was a lack of awareness about what can be done.  We would encourage companies seeking to find out more to engage with SBI and other organisations which provide a wide range of educational seminars and material to help them on their sustainability journey. 

“Clients looking to Guernsey for sustainable finance and tourism will expect the jurisdiction to ‘walk the walk’, so we would encourage local companies to consider being more active to be a part of that effort.”

The Business Sustainability Survey was started in 2019 to explore how important sustainability is to local businesses, why they may, or may not, care about environmental issues and what they’re doing about it. 

66 respondents from a wide range of business sectors and sizes took part in the survey, which will be run annually by the Chamber group, to monitor change over time. The SBI are benchmarking against the UK and will in future years benchmark against previous local results.  More details are on the Guernsey Chamber website.

The SBI run frequent events to provide practical insight and training to help local businesses mitigate their climate impact at the Chamber of Commerce.

Contact sbi.guernsey@gmail.com or office@guernseychamber.com for more information.