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new opportunities

intelligence (AI) to optimize data-center energy these concepts at scale. For example, De
efficiency, it reduced the amount of energy used Volksbank defines shared value as benefits for
for cooling by 40%. Apple uses Daisy, a recycling customers, responsibility to society, meaning for
robot, to disassemble and sort used iPhones. employees and return for shareholders. Chemical
Meanwhile, Walmart, IBM and others formed the company BASF measures economic, social and
Blockchain Food Safety Alliance to improve supply environmental benefits in its calculation of net
chain traceability in China. impact for each step of the value chain.
Although breakthrough technologies can bring Investors are facilitating this shift by redefining
great benefits, they also can cause unintended the kinds of value they expect from companies,
harm. For example, AI and robotics could make with major firms such as APG, BNP Paribas and
it affordable for mining companies to dig deeper CalPERS factoring environmental and social
and cause greater environmental damage, and considerations into valuations and investment
autonomous vehicles have the potential to displace decisions. ING and others supplied a €1 billion loan
public transit and increase emissions if not paired to Philips with an interest rate that varies based on
with renewable fuels. Companies must implement changes in the company’s ESG performance.
technology with integrity and for good in order Such advances support a mindset shift that
to retain trust among employees, customers empowers companies to invest in a future where
and their communities—and to win in the long better business practices lead to improved social
term. Additionally, companies cannot sit back and environmental outcomes. Fortunately, a
and expect technology to solve global problems. growing body of evidence supports the correlation,
They must instead take a proactive approach, and even causation, between ESG performance
using advanced technologies to promote their and returns. The shift is not a financial trade-off.
sustainability strategies. If every company waits for
others to demonstrate the potential benefits of new
technologies, no progress will be achieved. Reinventing the core business
(if necessary)
Redefining what value When companies look into the future, many will see
creation means that their only option for becoming sustainable is to
for the enterprise make a drastic shift in direction. Our survey found
that 90% of companies feel they need to change
Many companies are now well versed in materiality their core business model at least somewhat in
assessments and transparent reporting. Leaders order to operate in a truly sustainable economy,
exceed these basics; they acknowledge that a and 38% of companies feel that their core business
truly sustainable economy requires expanding a model will need to change radically (see Figure 4).
company’s view of value creation beyond financial That is a huge proportion when you consider how
profit to consider society and the planet as a whole. infrequently companies reinvent their core, and do
Ideas such as shared value and measuring so successfully.
nonfinancial benefits are not new. What is new:
large companies accepting and implementing We see companies engage in four flavors of
reinvention: making significant changes to their
products (e.g., from a physical product to a virtual
one); shifting the customer and engagement
channel (e.g., sharing services and goods vs. single-
owner use); rethinking operations (e.g., “closed
loop” production); and transforming the economic
model (e.g., charging based on the amount the
product is used rather than on ownership).
Business reinvention is not without risk, as many
companies’ early entries into solar demonstrate.
Yet others show how reinvention can succeed. The
Danish utility Ørsted (formerly named Dong Energy)
has made great strides in its conversion from
fossil fuels to wind power. It has reduced its coal
consumption by 82%, with the goal to reach a 96%
reduction in carbon emissions by 2023, exceeding
science-based targets. After more than 150 years
of operating a business focused on cigarettes,
Philip Morris International is reinventing itself for
a “smoke-free future” by pursuing reduced-risk
Fig. 4
products. Volvo has said that in 2019 it will stop

48 48 Impiantistica Italiana - Maggio-Giugno 2019