There is another exciting announcement for this year's Service Dealer Conference in today's Update.
This time it's confirmation of another breakout session to join our previously announced keynote speaker, branding expert, Daryl Fielding and customer experience specialist, Adrian Swinscoe who will also be running one of these smaller group seminars.
Today's addition to the line-up promises to be a fascinating workshop run by independent consultants Sophie Brooks and Camilla Barnes who will be considering how dealerships might utilise sustainability strategies within their companies to help lead to business growth.
The notion of independent businesses looking at integrating sustainability into all that they do, ties into our lead story from last week of Service Dealer's publisher TAP, achieving B Corp certification. In that announcement, this title's owner, Duncan Murray-Clarke said, "It’s clear that business needs to lead the way, and I’d urge more businesses in our sector to consider committing to a sustainability scheme, and potentially start the B Corp process. It doesn’t matter that it takes time, it does matter that you start the journey."
It seems to me that this session announced today, should be an excellent way to introduce and explain how thinking more about sustainability within the workplace is a concept that can both appeal to and, crucially, be beneficial to businesses of all sizes.
I'm sure that Sophie and Camilla will make it abundantly clear how a business choosing to act in a sustainable manner certainly is not simply "virtue signaling" as one commentator put it last week. If anything, with the way society is evolving, it's a necessity.
Why and for what benefit?
Experts in this field would argue that companies need to think about bringing sustainable operations into their working practices for a whole host of reasons. These would include environmental considerations such as mitigating carbon footprints where possible; responsible waste management; future-proofing the business against inevitable regulatory changes; anticipating changing consumer preferences and fostering innovation.
However, beyond reasons which I suppose one could loosely categorise as 'doing the right thing', I'm sure Sophie and Camilla in their presentation will be stressing how acting sustainably can actually lead to increased profitability for a business.
I've been reading why sustainability advisors would argue that whist there are undeniably initial investments and changes required to begin to implement sustainable practices, the long-term benefits can outweigh the costs.
For example sustainable practices often lead to reduced energy consumption, water usage, and waste generation. By using energy-efficient equipment, optimising operational processes, and minimising waste, its entirely possible that dealerships could lower their utility bills and expenses. Over time, these cost savings could of course, improve the bottom line.
Another consequence it's argued, is that consumers can be willing to pay a premium for sustainable products and services. A sustainable dealership could in theory promote itself as offering environmentally friendly options, allowing it to justify slightly higher prices - contributing to improved margins.
More reasons I read for sustainability equalling profitability included attracting and retaining a loyal customer base; the gaining of a unique selling point for the business; avoiding compliance issues and associated fines; long-term resilience; and boosted employee engagement and retention.
Sophie and Camilla promise their workshop "will help dealers celebrate what they are doing well and look at how creating a successful, purposeful business can be instrumental in helping achieve a fitter, stronger, more profitable dealership". I for one, am certainly looking forward to learning more about this subject that will only become increasingly important as time goes on.
There will be further announcements of what dealers can expect at November's Conference in the coming weeks, so do keep an eye on this Update, the magazine and our social channels.
