Sustainability Matters: Why and how business is widening its focus to consider the needs of all stakeholders

There are three ways in which companies can embrace sustainability: through philanthropy, as part of a risk management strategy, or by integrating sustainable practices into the business model itself.

It is not always easy to integrate sustainability initiatives in daily business processes.

Challenges include dealing with increased transparency, measuring results in an efficient, systematic manner, incorporating sustainability into decision-making and business processes, maintaining momentum and simply determining who owns each piece of the sustainability footprint.

The benefits include cost savings by limiting waste and consumption of natural resources, new business opportunities through environmentally-friendly product innovations, enhanced brand value and reputation with customers and partners, better risk management, the ability to attract capital from 'green' investors, and the opportunity to attract better staff by offering a great place to work.

Increasingly, Oracle customers are using Oracle's enterprise performance management applications and business intelligence tools for their sustainability reporting, to measure sustainability matters in an efficient, systematic manner.