Why Sustainability Is Key for Companies Now

Protecting the environment requires individual commitment but a lot more collective commitment. It helps when people reduce their use of resources at home but companies have a greater challenge and should take action to see large-scale changes.

This is a global trend. Companies are feeling an increasing pressure from their stakeholders to develop plans that address climate risk. So, being sustainable as a company now means working for the growth of your business without affecting the future of the environment and people. In this sense, in all business plans, three interdependent pillars must coexist in harmony: the economy, the environment and society.

It's crucial that corporations have short- and long-term action plans. The good news is that building sustainable businesses has indisputable advantages, not only for the environment. In recent years, technology has become a great ally, introducing to business environments applications that provide greater productivity, electronic devices with greater energy efficiency and that help reduce emissions of harmful gasses, while allowing organizations endless activities that can be carried out more efficiently, remotely, reducing paper usage and at a speed never imagined.

Modern organizations cannot ignore the value of efficient contract management technologies, as they conform to the three pillars mentioned above. They promote the speed and efficiency of the processes in the companies while reducing paper, water and emissions.

This has been DocuSign's pledge since its foundation. Together, DocuSign and its customers that use electronic signatures have saved more than 55 billion sheets of paper. This means more than 6 million trees saved that did not end up in the archives, creating logistics issues or reducing the productivity of employees. Six million trees are equivalent to 35 times the size of Chapultepec Park in Mexico City or 315 times the size of Central Park in New York. It's not irrelevant.

On the other hand, there are more ways in which companies can reflect their environmental interests. Going digital is a great opportunity to make a positive impact. But every effort adds up when it comes to reducing environmental impact: using renewable energies; promoting remote work, reducing commuting; recycling materials that are used on a daily basis, for example. On a business scale, these actions have a greater impact compared to the individual scale.

Beyond the benefits that all these actions mean for the environment, resorting to the conscious use of natural resources, recycling and digitization of processes translates into savings and more efficiency for companies. For example, when managing agreements electronically, more than 82 percent of contracts are completed in less than a day and 49 percent in less than 15 minutes. In addition to reducing costs with supplies and logistics, human errors are avoided, revenue is accelerated and employees are prevented from spending time on repetitive tasks.

In addition, promoting a green business and culture also has an impact on prestige, as it raises the brand’s value among its customers, employees, shareholders and regulators. People are increasingly aware of the reality of the planet, so they seek to solve their consumption needs by choosing businesses with a social and environmentally responsible vision.

Modern companies must make the theme of environmental impact and sustainability a priority. By continuing to evolve without compromising the environment, we will not only give future generations a better place to live but there will be better conditions for our companies to continue growing. That is being sustainable: growing in a conscious way.