Survey: Technology investments core to corporate sustainability

Was just skimming through the summary of what is billed as the largest-ever survey of CEOs about corporate sustainability.

The report by Accenture and the United Nations Global Compact (an initiative that supports businesses moving strategically to embrace sustainability) covers the opinions of 766 global CEOs and also includes anecdotal information from interviews with about 50 of them.

I wrote up a summary of the survey, “A New Era of Sustainability: UN Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study 2010,” over in my blog for ZDNet sister blog network, Smart Planet. But the crux of the matter is this: 93 percent of the executives surveyed said sustainability is becoming fundamental to their core operational mindset.

From a greentech standpoint, there is one really compelling reason this is important: 91 percent of those same CEOs believe that technology will absolutely be core to meeting sustainability objectives.

The sorts of technologies that matter most are focused on the following:

• Anything that informs or affects energy efficiency
• Social media that speeds sustainability information sharing across business units AND with consumers, business partners and shareholders. Indeed, approximately 78 percent of the responding executives believe that collaboration among stakeholders, including business partners, consumers, suppliers and government representatives, will be crucial
• Renewable energy options

I encourage you to read the report if for no other reason than to be prepared about what might be coming down the pike in terms of IT initiatives/mandates.