The MIT Sloan Management Review, in conjunction with The Boston Consulting Group, recently gleaned in excess of 4,000 responses to its 2011 Sustainability & Innovation Global Executive Study.
Analysis of 2,874 respondents from commercial enterprises reveals that a substantial portion of companies are now seeing the need for sustainable business practices — and are deriving financial benefits from these activities.
Visit here to play around with the data and see what industries have had the best success with implementing sustainable business practices, what the impact on profitability have been, and other bits of statistical goodness. Some random numbers I came across as I poked around:
  • 53% of respondents said that “customer preference for sustainable goods and services” is the driver of new business models, followed by “resource scarcity” cited by 35%.
  • The industries that are profiting the most from sustainability are consumer products and industrial services (42% of each), followed by construction, energy and utilities, and chemicals (39% each).
  • The top benefit that respondents have realized from implementing sustainability solutions is “improved brand reputation” (48%).
You can also download the raw data (in .csv format) to play with even more. Hours of fun!