Real world examples of how environmental data generates business value
Both our speakers provided real-world examples of how high quality environmental data has generated business value, while also delivering on sustainability objectives.
They provided examples from:
Oil & Gas: Cedric worked with a company that wanted to explore alternative business lines for the next two decades. Instead of focusing on high-level aspirations, the company worked with Cedric and his team to develop emissions pathways, cost curves and market data to evaluate new revenue opportunities in the same terms as a CFO would expect. Environmental data wasn't an add-on to strategy but the basis for it.
Infrastructure resilience: Cedric engaged with a technology firm that suspected climate risk would drive demand, but didn't know where. By combining physical risk data with market analysis, they were able to identify which infrastructure types and regions would see the earliest impact, enabling targeted product development and sales - getting ahead of their competitors.
Consumer goods: Minimum works with a customer entering the EU market, which needed robust environmental data to compete against established regional players. This firm was able to leverage Minimum to build a credible, defensible sustainability proposition based on high quality data that could withstand scrutiny from buyers and retailers, enabling successful expansion into a market with higher expectations around environmental performance.
Telecoms: A Minimum customer used high-frequency environmental data to integrate acquisitions and support investment decisions. They were able to easily incorporate newly acquired entities into their decarbonisation plans without slowing progress and continuing to demonstrate credible climate performance to investors.
ROI as the entry ticket
Being able to calculate and justify the ROI for environmental data software and systems is crucial. Sustainability projects compete for capital with other business investments and must be evaluated through the same lens. If the return on investing in emissions software (for example) cannot be quantified in the language of value creation, it is unlikely to secure funding.
For software, efficiency gains can be a natural starting point for beginning an ROI calculation. Sustainability teams should map where value could be created in their organisation and compare that to how their time is currently spent. This often highlights the bottlenecks that prevent high-value work and makes the need for better environmental data more tangible.
But efficiency doesn’t capture the full benefits of investing in software, especially when considering potential revenue opportunities that can be unlocked by obtaining better quality data. These will likely be unique to each business and require bespoke modelling.
Bottom Line
We concluded the webinar by asking both speakers the following:
If you had one piece of advice for sustainability professionals making the business case, what would it be?
Cedric recommended involving providers of high quality environmental data directly in the ROI conversation. He suggested asking them to help model the business case, not simply deliver technical outputs. This could even be included in RFP criteria.
Charlie suggested mapping how sustainability can add value across revenue, cost and risk, and then compare that to how the team’s time is currently being used. The gap between the two often reveals the strongest argument for investment.
The Minimum Line
Sustainability teams need to think in business value terms when making the case for investing in better quality environmental data. Revenue generating opportunities are likely to be most compelling but arguments related to cost savings, market access, as well as risk avoidance and talent attraction can also help.
These benefits can only be achieved by having environmental data that is robust, timely and specific enough to enable action to be taken. This is why it’s critical to invest in software and systems that can deliver high quality environmental data.
Watch the full webinar: How to translate your environmental data into business value
