Global professional services firm EY has unveiled its new Sustainable Operating Blueprint, designed to help companies incorporate sustainability into their enterprise strategies. The blueprint offers a framework for embedding sustainability across all organisational functions, addressing a common challenge many businesses face: treating sustainability as an isolated effort rather than an integrated part of their operations.
Alexis Gazzo, EY Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS) Global Leader, highlighted the need for this initiative, noting that sustainability often remains confined to specialist teams, disconnected from core areas such as planning, procurement, product design, and performance management. This disconnect can hinder businesses’ ability to manage risks, seize opportunities, and achieve their sustainability goals.
The new blueprint features an AI-enabled, structured roadmap tailored to each organisation. It begins with defining ambition and strategic direction, assessing current standings, identifying gaps, and prioritising actions for transformation.
Built on two main pillars — strategic clarity and operational embeddedness — it guides organisations in prioritising sustainability through decision-making, engagement, and preparedness. It also helps turn ambitions into systems and processes through key levers like capabilities and skills, processes and technology, products and services, organisational design and governance, and monitoring and evaluation.
Gazzo emphasised the importance of shifting sustainability from a mere reporting exercise to a strategic value driver. When embedded into business operations, sustainability can unlock innovation, build resilience, and enable agility, positioning organisations for future success. This approach aims to harness sustainability not only for ethical reasons but as a crucial component of business viability.
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