The pursuit of sustainability is not only a moral responsibility, but also key to the long-term success of companies. In an era of climate crisis and rising customer and investor expectations, companies must take proactive measures to reduce their environmental impact. The transformation towards a circular economy (GOZ) is becoming a priority, offering numerous business benefits such as cost reductions, improved reputation and increased innovation. These are the conclusions of our latest study "Businesses in the circular economy: a detailed analysis".. 

.... significant most companies want to implement sustainable initiatives or have already started the process? Such declarations were made by 71.1 to 84.9% managers representing medium and large companies from six European countries.

The increase in public awareness of lifestyles and consumption patterns is causing businesses, institutions and government bodies to recognise the need for an imminent change in strategy and to adopt new
direction.

Process efficiency is the main driver for implementing sustainable initiatives. This is followed by communication considerations and the company's image in the eyes of stakeholders. Taking these motivations into account, the next part of the analysis focused on a group of companies selected for the type of sustainable initiatives undertaken. To this end, an in-depth analysis was carried out, which showed that the most common practice is to verify the compliance of the business with environmental regulations (72% companies).

Reducing the environmental impact of a company's activities in this way is a valuable competitive advantage. Of the actions taken to achieve this goal, respondents most often declared reducing emissions, optimising waste management, avoiding plastic, eco-designing packaging and developing an effective ESG strategy.