Singapore firms blame lack of budget, talent for sustainability struggles: report
Vivienne Tay
ALTHOUGH a majority of Singapore businesses see the importance of sustainability, challenges like insufficient budget and a lack of specialised talent continue to weigh.
Around 41 per cent of Singapore business leaders cited these 2 reasons for the lack of sustainability goals, according to a new special report on sustainability by continuing education and training provider NTUC LearningHub.
Furthermore, 30 per cent of respondents listed insufficient knowledge of the issues, as well as difficulties in integrating sustainability with overall business strategy, as reasons for not having sustainability strategies. Around 26 per cent said that having sustainability goals had no impact on business outcomes.
In the report released Wednesday (Aug 3), NTUC LearningHub also noted a “persisting” gap between having the intention and actually implementing sustainable business practices.
While more than 90 per cent of business leaders agreed on the importance of integrating sustainability practices into their overall strategy, only 28 per cent said they have begun implementing goals and strategies.
Almost one-third (31 per cent) of business leaders said they were at the early planning stage of identifying goals and defining strategies, NTUC LearningHub said.
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Only 24 per cent of respondents said their organisation has embarked on sustainability initiatives, indicating a lack of urgency among organisations. About 13 per cent of respondents said their organisation would do so in the next 2 months, while 22 per cent said they would start in the next 6 months.
The findings are a mixed bag when it comes to who in the organisation should be driving change. About 39 per cent of employers said the C-suite management should be the key stakeholder responsible for overseeing and rolling out sustainability strategies, while 59 per cent believe a dedicated sustainability committee should be responsible instead.
Around 77 per cent of employers are looking to hire talent for sustainability-related initiatives in the next 2 years. The top skills in demand include environment and social governance, carbon footprint management and sustainable business strategies.
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A majority of employers are open to sending their employees for sustainability training, but more than half (56 per cent) require help in training employees with relevant skills.
Noting that sustainability is a “very new” concept for many companies, NTUC LearningHub director of technical skills product division Tay Ee Learn said that companies will be looking for talents which can help them develop products or adopt new technologies to support their sustainable initiatives.
NTUC LearningHub’s report was based on a survey of 200 business leaders across different industries in Singapore.
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