PMI$$s $$The ESG Imperative$($n$.$d$.)$ highlights benefits over two years for companies that implement environmental, social, and governance $($ESG$)$ sustainability strategies : $23$ percent increased top$-$line revenue growth, ten percent increase to profits, and ten percent greater innovation. Impressive, right?

The source of these statistics, NTT$$s $$Innovating for a Sustainable Future$(2022)$ calculated these figures by assessing $500$ businesses across seven industries relative to their Sustainability Maturity, or to what degree a business has adopted sustainability as part of its core strategy. NTT used ten initiatives to assess Sustainability Maturity, in which I noticed a few patterns, color$-$coded here: Change Management Basics, Clear Metrics, vertically integrated innovation, and Efficiency.

$$Develop a vision, strategy, implementation plan, and budget

Develop an effective organizational structure, skills, and resources

Communicate goals to all stakeholders: investors, customers, and employees

Set, track, and report metrics for sustainability performance

Drive supply chain efficiency and operational innovation

Lead product and service innovation

Embrace business model Innovation

Harness advanced digital technology

Integrate sustainable goals and metrics into investment decisions

Utilize a commonly used measurement framework $($such as GRI, SASB, or TCFD$)$

Source: NTT Group, $2021$

Clearly, Project Managers should maintain focus on effective change management, but notice that the seven other initiatives push for clear metrics and innovation built into the business model. Performance relative to goals cannot be measured without standardized, clear metrics. Improvements to that performance$$ innovation and efficiency increases$$ must be parsed according to these standardized metrics and communicated across stakeholders.

As a Project Manager, this indicates the importance of clarity of metrics, of vision, and of goals across the organization. This means communicating clearly with stakeholders and bringing investors along to make investment decisions in line with sustainability goals. What works during one time period for the business must be assessed accurately using its metrics $$ such that being open to organizational change is a must as well.

What stands out to me most here is that these initiatives, and PMI$$s article, scaffold the way to improvements $-$ breaking down the measures that organizations can take to build toward environmental, social, and governance sustainability. If NTT$$s $500$ surveyed companies are any indication, profits and long$-$term growth are sure to follow.