Boston, MA - The ROI of Sustainability: Making the Business Case, announced by Aberdeen Group, serves as a roadmap for those attempting to match environmental and social stewardship to clear and measurable improvements to their operations and financial results. Far from being a philanthropic "nice to have," top performing organizations view sustainability as a "must have" strategy for long-term business profitability and success. An agenda for sustainability and corporate social responsibility brings together strategies to ensure optimal performance related to the business, the environment, and society.

By incorporating sustainability objectives into performance management, fostering standard policies and focusing on carbon and cost reductions, top performers achieved nine per cent reduction in carbon footprint, six per cent reduction in energy costs, seven per cent reduction in facilities costs and 10 per cent reduction in paper, all while managing to improve customer retention by 16 per cent.

"Gone are the days when pretty pictures in the annual report were enough to demonstrate sustainability and corporate social responsibility. A growing number of companies must provide verifiable evidence of social and environmental impacts," said Cindy Jutras, vice president and research fellow, Aberdeen. "Yet, in order to justify the continued application of resources, companies must also demonstrate real business results. Leading companies are 52 per cent more likely to incorporate sustainability performance indicators in measuring the performance of the full supply chain. This is often combined with sustainable sourcing strategies, focusing not only within their own four walls but encouraging, or even demanding suppliers demonstrate sustainable, responsible, ethical practices."

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