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View from the Top: Sustainability at A.T. Kearney
In conversation with Christine Rivera, Principal in the sustainability practice at A.T. Kearney, Emma Simmons explores how A.T. Kearney is taking a lead in helping its clients face the challenge.
That climate change is happening is accepted by all but the most stubborn, isolated voices around the world. While individuals and communities begin to find energy saving and recycling strategies, businesses are confronted with the imperative to face their responsibilities in this race against time. According to Christine Rivera, rising to this challenge can be all but straightforward. “The call to action is about taking steps to ensure that our current consumption and behaviours will not adversely impact generations to follow. If businesses are to accept the challenge – and many are – they must find a way to seamlessly embed sustainable business practices as part of the normal course of doing business.”
Environmental concerns have been the main catalyst in the most recent surge of attention paid by business to sustainability, but there are further compelling external business drivers that are prompting a more urgent focus on it. These include the demands of ever more savvy consumers and shareholders, pressure from competitors already responding to the challenges, the anticipation of supply chain risks (what happens if you engage in sustainable processes, for example, but your suppliers don’t?) and changes in national and transnational legislation. These forces are growing in intensity and it is foreseeable that a company’s approach to sustainability will, one day, contribute to its brand value.
A.T. Kearney’s definition of sustainability aligns with the ‘triple bottom line’ concept: the balance between economic development, environmental protection and social well-being.
A.T. Kearney’s definition of sustainability aligns with the ‘triple bottom line’ concept: the balance between economic development, environmental protection and social well-being. “It’s about meeting the needs of the enterprise and its stakeholders while preserving – and possibly enhancing – the human and natural resources that it impacts or draws upon.” says Christine Rivera. The firm has long recognized that sustainability is broader than the green or environmental agenda and believes that this recognition is fundamental to working with clients on these issues. The collaborative model A.T. Kearney employs, working closely alongside clients, allows a direct approach to sustainability issues from within the client business, while calling upon expertise and intellectual capital from the A.T. Kearney sustainability team around the world.
With a longer than 80-year history in strategy and operations consulting, A.T. Kearney has a heritage that positions it optimally to help clients address these issues, whether by helping them develop and implement comprehensive sustainability strategies, or to more closely align supply chains to clients’ sustainability agendas. According to Christine Rivera, “ We are striving to embed sustainability into all our practices. We try to look at our engagements through a ‘sustainability prism’ and ensure that our recommendations – not just those made as part of a sustainability project – are, in fact, sustainable. Equally, we may try to introduce the concept where it might not have otherwise been considered. It’s becoming part of the way we think.”
Developing thought leadership through both research and client work is core to the essence of what management consultants do and the sustainability practice is no exception.
Thought leadership
Developing thought leadership through both research and client work is core to the essence of what management consultants do and the sustainability practice is no exception. A.T. Kearney regularly publishes articles and white papers, all accessible through the website (www. atkearney.com). In a recent collaboration with the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), a diverse group of Fortune 100 firms, across several industries, were surveyed to investigate how companies can promote sustainable practices. February 2008 sees the publication of a major global sustainability study produced in collaboration with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and participation at two flagship EIU sustainability conferences in New York and London bringing learning from across the world together in one forum.
