How do sustainability strategies help to mitigate against a limited supply of resources?

Gabriella Zahzouh, Global Environmental Manager, British American Tobacco
“As we rely extensively on natural resources, our strategies help us to forecast future scarcity issues and ensure supply and demand is in balance. Our local reforestation programmes are good examples. We understand through local assessments, what fuels are used for curing our tobacco and it is vital to us to ensure that our farmers have a ready and sustainable supply available to them year over year without negatively impacting the biodiversity around us all.”

Rodolphe d’Arjuzon, Global Head of Research and Development, Verdantix
“These strategies help you to understand exposure so that you can create sensible risk management plans. They also help you to know your suppliers so that you can work with them. There is a lot of this going on in the food sector. Companies such as Unilever, Nestle, and PepsiCo have created programmes to directly engage, teach and support their agricultural suppliers. It also improves the robustness of weak links in the chain. For example, working directly with farmers on better irrigation methods can help conserve water while boosting yield.”


Robert Gabriel, Director of Corporate Sustainability, PE INTERNATIONAL
“Any sustainability strategy will include the management of energy and material resources in its core. Understanding consumption, efficiencies and sourcing of resources are keys to evaluating and reducing the risks related to limited resource availability and price increases. In addition, a proper sustainability strategy will also address the opportunities to increase the competitive edge, whether by driving the top line with green product portfolios, or by growing the bottom line with the reduction of resource-related production costs.”