Top 3 Takeaways from the “Sustainability in the Age of Trump” Webinar

As we enter the dawn of a new era of presidential administration, change is certainly inevitable. And as sustainability and environmental protection efforts remain top of mind, the potential for looming administrative changes has become a reality. Curious to better understand the current attitudes about sustainability regulation and funding, Lucid and Urjanet teamed up to survey hundreds of energy and sustainability professionals.

The survey garnered over 100 responses about organizational commitments to sustainability and funding, and how data plays critical role in tracking sustainability progress in 2017. To further explore the results of the survey, esteemed sustainability thought leader panelists, Tim Porter, Director OEM/ Channel Sales at Urjanet, Zachary Shelin, Energy Efficiency Manager at The Cadmus Group, and Ralf VonSosen, CMO at Lucid, discussed a host of topics in a recent webinar, Sustainability in the Age of Trump.

The panel discussed key points about trends seen in the survey data, and also focused on the some broad questions at hand about the future of sustainability. Check out our top five takeaways from Lucid and Urjanet’s webinar:

Sustainability is becoming a corporate mission.

While impending changes to sustainability efforts and regulations continue to boil on the backburner for many organizations, the results of the survey relayed an interesting piece of information. Many organizations are now focusing on continuing sustainability efforts as a part of their corporate mission as a part of an effort to drive business performance and maintain industry recognition. In fact, 74 percent of survey respondents representing private companies largely expected no change to existing sustainability programs, while 21 percent expects increased commitment to sustainability in 2017.

Sustainability careers are changing.

As the importance of sustainability continues to grow within organizations, so too, does the focus on positions managing these efforts. In the survey, it was found that more emphasis is being placed on cross-organizational support, with 55 percent of respondents expect to collaborate more with fellow sustainability professionals. This shift in emphasis can only serve to strengthen the field by facilitating problem-solving and spreading best practices.

Quantitative metrics are key.

As the adage goes, “You can’t improve what you can’t measure”. This mentality is becoming an increasingly important one when it comes to making the business case and proving return on investment for sustainability projects and efforts for organizations. “Focus on the quantitative metrics is a great sign for the industry. It shows that it is becoming a bigger part of the business,” said Ralf VonSosen. Moving forward into 2017, driving down costs and consumption will become a mainstream effort for organizations across the U.S., which makes identifying the right tools collecting the correct data that much more important for sustainability project success.

Take a deep dive into these key topics and more by checking out the full Sustainability in the Age of Trump webinar replay. Ready to talk about how utility data can help your business? Contact us to learn more.

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