Essential Sustainability Trends for Entrepreneurs Majda Dabaghi, Chief Sustainability Officer at ekko, a London-based sustainability platform for banks and payments, explains why responsible businesses are positively correlated to improved financial results.

In conversation with Entrepreneur UK, Majda Dabaghi, Chief Sustainability Officer at ekko, a London-based sustainability platform for banks and payments, highlights three pivotal sustainability trends for entrepreneurs: leveraging AI for net-zero goals, accelerating supply chain decarbonization through technology, and reversing nature loss to achieve global biodiversity targets.

Dabaghi advises startups to embed sustainability into their strategy from the start, warning those who don't risk missing out on efficiency gains, competitive advantage, and improved access to capital.

What innovative sustainability trends should entrepreneurs watch for?

I think there are three main trends to watch for and contribute to:

How can we leverage AI to achieve net zero and a more sustainable future?

How can we use technology to help accelerate the decarbonisation of global supply chains and ensure they are more sustainable?

How can the business community contribute to reversing nature loss to help achieve the UN Aichi biodiversity targets?

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What's a common mistake startups make in sustainability, and how can it be avoided?

Startups often build their companies without regard to sustainability, taking the view that they will think about sustainability when they have more time and resources. Instead, startups should make sustainability an integral part of their business strategy from the start and build as they mean to go on.

Studies show that companies that have sustainability at their heart, improve efficiency, increase their resilience, gain a significant competitive advantage as consumers increasingly look to more sustainable brands, and even position themselves for more advantageous access to capital.

Can you share a success story where sustainability boosted a company's growth?

A joint Bain & Company and Ecovadis study of 100,000 businesses published last year, demonstrates that responsible businesses are positively correlated to improved financial results.

How can entrepreneurs effectively measure the impact of their sustainability efforts?

The first and most important step is to integrate sustainability into the core business strategy and then, measure and track your impact. As the saying goes, you cannot manage what you don't measure and businesses are spoiled for choice when it comes to tools that can help measure sustainability impact.

For example, ekko has committed to the UN-backed SME Climate Hub which offers a free carbon calculator for companies that are starting out with their journey but we are also working on ensuring our business is contributing positively to sustainability in line with the B Corp standards. There are also a number of companies that offer detailed sector-specific measurement and analysis offerings that can accompany businesses on their sustainability journeys and offer the opportunity to implement genuine transition strategies.

What role do partnerships play in advancing sustainability, and how can startups leverage them?

Radical collaboration is the name of the game when it comes to working towards a more sustainable future. Business, government, academia, the scientific community and individuals all have a role to play and the more we can leverage our collective knowledge and action, the more likely we will be able to achieve a more sustainable future. Start-ups have to reach beyond their natural ecosystems and work with all stakeholders.

At ekko, we are working with banks, payment providers, environmental scientists, environmental NGOs and consumers to disrupt the transactions space to drive action on climate and nature. Some of the ways in which we are doing this is by helping consumers better understand the environmental impact of their purchases through our measurement tools and also giving consumers an opportunity to reduce their environmental impact with our tracking tools, nudges and educational content. With ekko, consumers are also empowered to make contributions to environmental projects vetted by our first-in-class impact partners and/or to invest their savings in accounts aligned with their environmental values. Our ultimate goal is to contribute USD1 billion (GBP762,400,000) to environmental projects while helping consumers make more sustainable consumption choices.

Related: Sustainability for Entrepreneurs — Why It Matters (and How to Achieve It).