Our customers are increasingly asking us how our sustainability efforts can help enhance theirs. Through these interactions, we are seeing varying degrees of maturity in our customers’ sustainability journeys. To address common questions and challenges in these wide-ranging paths, Kyra Whitten, our Senior VP of sustainability and president of the Flex Foundation, shares key learnings from our own journey in a multi-part blog series called “Building a sustainable business.”
Flex sustainability: your questions answered
Sustainability is a hot topic these days if judging by the growing number of inquiries our program office has been fielding this year. Customers want to know everything from our carbon emission reduction strategy to our labor policies to our reporting practices.
Goal setting 101 for sustainable operations
Goals and targets are the centerpiece of every corporate sustainability strategy as they guide priorities and progress. Since many of our customers and suppliers are in the early days of their sustainability journey, I would like to share some tips on how to approach goal setting.
Best practices for ESG data collection
Data has always been the fuel of sustainability programs, enabling us to track performance, report to stakeholders and drive improvement. Today, ESG metrics are having their big moment as investors, customers, and employees increasingly use them as a yardstick for measuring brand value. With ESG funds drawing a record $120 billion last year, more than double 2020’s $51 billion, a lot is clearly riding on the sustainability data we have been gathering for years.
Going from sustainability strategy to reporting
Summer marks the arrival of reporting season, which typically runs from June to August and includes annual ESG/sustainability reports. As organizations disclose their sustainability performance metrics from the prior year and share their future commitments, taking a close look at best practices in ESG data disclosure is especially relevant as the next topic of our Building a sustainable business blog series.
Establishing a foundation to give back
As this series nears its end, and during the time of year that is often dedicated to giving, I want to discuss a topic that is especially meaningful to me: how to start a private foundation to support philanthropic initiatives through awarding grants, matching employee volunteer hours and donations, and providing disaster relief.
Building a culture that actionizes sustainability
In the final installment of this series about how to build a sustainable business, I want to take a moment to reflect on the hard work and perseverance that goes into creating a meaningful and impactful sustainability program. If you’re a company that has put in the time and energy to craft a sustainability strategy, set goals, report on progress, and establish a charitable foundation — or even if you’re just now in the initial steps of your sustainability journey — you should feel proud. You are doing the right thing for your business, your people, and the world at large.