50: Ambition: The Sustainability Metric That Actually Matters

We really focus on having an actual score and an ambition score.

And we often talk about it as sort of trying to align people's thought process with the same way as financial growth.

You know, you want and you invest in a business to grow.

And it's the same with sustainability.

It should be relevant and appropriate at any stage that you are at.

But can you explain, you know, what that distinction means in practice between an actual and ambition and why it matters for businesses that may be just starting out?

Yeah, of course.

I think that the difference between them is really important because just because say I've done something yesterday doesn't mean I'm going to do it tomorrow.

And in many cases, intent can be a better example of a business's direction as opposed to what they've already achieved, especially in regards to SMEs.

So what the actual score may show is what a company has already done, which is important for all sorts of things.

For instance, assessing change and improvement over time can be used for tenders and general benchmarking.

But I think what really sets FuturePlus apart is the ambition metrics.

And I was recently reading a book called Net Positive, which I think a few of us have all read, where Paul Pullman, The ex-CEO of Unilever was really honing on on how ambition is one of the most important things when it comes to sustainability and really setting yourself challenging goals that make you rethink what the word possible even means.

And I think the FuturePlus platform really allows that because we have a clear roadmap where companies can plan for up to three years ahead.

And for SMEs in particular, it can be a bit overwhelming when perhaps your ESG maturity isn't that high.

But ultimately, by having that roadmap in place, it means you can sort of work on the right things at the right time and not disregard certain aspects of sustainability.

So for instance, I have one client who was working on like a climate reduction scheme, and this is over the span of three years.

And as that takes a while, we've seen at the same time they're working towards a modern slavery statement.

So it's really important to work towards all aspects of ESG.

And I think the ambition roadmap really allows for that.

Yeah, I think having that variety of sort of low impact, low effort, high impact, high effort and the other four sides of the quadrant on that sort of effort and impact is really important to have cadence and momentum.

You've got to have the big goals that you're reaching for, but you also need to have the things that are easy and feel like you're making progress.

And I think being able to have a roadmap that can encapsulate both of those at the same time is really important.

But also, again, going back to you guys and how important it is, is having somebody that can guide you through that process of what that is, is also really important.