MADISON, Wis. - Can the broader issue of “sustainability” in all aspects of life be woven into credit unions’ strategic thinking?
It can be, according to a new study that notes the “trend toward a more sustainable future is large and important in contemporary life, creating a significant shift in thinking about our business, civic, and personal lives.”
The study, commissioned by the Filene Research Institute and authored by Stuart Hart and Monica Touesnard of Cornell University’s Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, is titled, “Back to the Future: Integrating Sustainability into Credit Union Strategy.”
According to Filene, the authors conclude that credit unions can address mounting social and environmental concerns as they build a foundation for innovation and growth. “In so doing, credit unions can outperform their competitors in today’s business and, even more important, outrun them in tomorrow’s technologies and markets,” the study suggests.
The two authors observed that rather than competing directly with banks, it makes more sense for credit unions to go “back to the future” by using their unique historical and organizational characteristics (e.g., tax- exempt status, cooperative ownership, community lending, and focus on the underserved) to offer a set of products and services that differentiate them from banks and other financial services providers. “The broad domain of ‘sustainability’ offers such a landscape of opportunity,” they noted.
Strategies To Reduce Waste
The study suggests that current strategies to minimize waste and emissions from operations, for example, might include green building initiatives and paperless services such as bill pay and online banking.
Product stewardship strategies designed to integrate stakeholder views into business processes might include sustainability reporting initiatives and in-house sustainability consulting services.
“For the future, clean technology promises to develop competencies such as financing green products and investment in clean technologies. Sustainability strategies also hold potential to create a shared road map for meeting unmet needs, such as REAL Solutions products and services,” the study said.
Filene’s Chief Research Officer George Hofheimer noted that many of today’s sustainability initiatives involve profit-spending, such as grants to community groups or expensive high-touch services and educational programs for underserved families. While such programs often fail to cover their costs, they serve to bolster reputation and establish productive relationships with other nonprofit or public partners.
