There are a number of reasons why sustainability matters. First, the obvious demand for corporate social responsibility – continuing concerns over power use and global warming mean firms cannot afford to put profits before principles, especially if they want to create a positive perception of their brand.

Secondly, choosing to ignore sustainability concerns does not mean they will slip silently away. The UK government is increasingly keen to place green at the top of the legislative agenda for businesses, and organisations will soon find that they need to report carbon emissions in the same way as they file financial figures at year-end.

However, many firms are badly prepared for such inevitability. The Carbon Trust reports that just 59% of blue-chip companies have robust carbon aims, despite the British government’s decision to set a legally binding target on greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020.

Much work needs to be done. Smart executives will turn to technology to help monitor carbon use, making the demands of compliance and reporting as painless as possible.

A good example of such technology is Advanced Business Solutions’ Carbon Accounting solution, a comprehensive and sophisticated tracking product. The product is integrated with Advanced’s OpenAccounts financial management system and enables businesses to quickly measure and then budget effectively for emissions.

High quality reporting tools capture carbon emissions data automatically and provide information on-demand to executives. The result is instant transparency, while simultaneously cutting the time-consuming processing associated with manual data entry and manipulation.

Which brings us nicely to the final reason why sustainability matters – going green does not have to be a costly activity. In fact, sustainable technology projects can also help increase business efficiency while slashing operational costs. Going green and operating more efficiently often go hand in hand.

In short, being green might have slipped down the corporate priority list during the downturn but pushing sustainability back to the top of the business agenda will mean your organisation is better prepared for a brighter, better future.

Don’t let the green agenda keep slipping down the priority list is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

TSL Education used to have credit control outsourced to another company when the DSO (days sales outstanding) was around 50 – 55 (the industry standard is 50).  They have now achieved a DSO of 35, in Di’s words ‘an amazing achievement and with half the staff.’ 

All invoices are printed from OpenAccounts from files sent from their advertising system.  Printing is outsourced, but all processing is within OpenAccounts.  Cheques are ‘read’ by a cheque print machine and posted to OpenAccounts and automatically posted and reconciled.  Due to the automation implemented she believes she has saved at least 2 staff.

In an environment where benefits from process automation are often talked about but rarely calculated, we send our congratulations for an award well deserved.

Details of the award winners can be found here: http://www.magazines2008.com/Excellence_awards.aspx 

Credit Team of the Year and Business Brand of the Year 2008! is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment