Sustainability is often touted as a top business priority, but how true is that across different organisations?

Over the last few months, I’ve asked new connections over on LinkedIn to rate the importance of sustainability to them and their business on a scale from 1 (it’s not important) to 10 (it’s core!). After asking over 500 people, I’ve had 121 answers, here’s what I learnt:

Pie chart showing how many people rated the importance of sustainability from 1 to 10. 64% rated it 10. 11.7% rated it 9. 15% rated it 8. 2.5% rated it 7. 3.3% rated it 5. 1.7% rated it 1 Pie chart showing results of a poll asking people to rate the importance of sustainability from 1-10 - 64% rated it 10. 90% rated it 8 or more.
  • 🏆 64% rated it a “10 out of 10” — indicating it’s core to their operations
  • 🌱 a further 26% rated it an 8 or 9 out of 10
  • 🙌 so in total 90% rate it 8 or above
  • 📉 Only 7% rated it 5 or less.

A few caveats:

The sample size of 121 is modest, so broader trends might differ.

My new connections are connecting thanks to my work at Glad and are therefore likely biased when it comes to sustainability…

The value / action gap is real; what people say they prioritise and what they actually do can be different.

Despite these points, it’s encouraging to see such strong prioritisation of sustainability.

Interestingly, several of those who scored it as a low priority stated that they’d like sustainability to be a higher priority in their organisation, but the reality of the current market meant other things were viewed as more pressing.

What’s your take on this? How does sustainability factor into your business or industry priorities? How big is the “value / action” gap do you think? How many businesses are doing something to be more sustainable and not just talking about it?

Join the discussion on LinkedIn.