You can now access The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability online at www.ceres.org/roadmap.
The Ceres Roadmap provides a practical framework for companies that are integrating sustainability into their business models. Visit the new website to explore 20 expectations for a sustainable corporation, learn about new case studies and resources, and access data on the performance of 600 of the largest U.S. companies.
Be sure to check out the new Roadmap in Action section featuring the latest case studies highlighting how companies are achieving the Ceres Roadmap expectations.
Share Your Story. If your company is exhibiting leading practice or innovation in one of the Roadmap’s key areas, you can now submit your story for an opportunity to be featured on The Ceres Roadmap website. Click here for more information.
New content will be added regularly.
More about the roadmap
In 2010, Ceres released The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability (“Roadmap”), a veritable owner’s manual for the sustainable corporation. The Roadmap contains 20 specific expectations for corporate performance broadly divided into four areas of activity— governance, stakeholder engagement, disclosure and performance.
The Ceres Roadmap focuses on areas where Ceres sees enormous opportunities for impact; however, it does not cover every aspect of sustainability. It is designed to be of practical help to all, whether a business aims to establish a leadership platform, to fill gaps in its existing approach to sustainability or is still considering where to begin.
Ceres suggests that businesses start by:
•Assessing the company’s baseline environmental and social performance
•Analyzing corporate management and accountability structures and systems
•Conducting a materiality analysis of risks and opportunities
A company can then formulate its own route to sustainability based on the key directions laid out in the roadmap. The route a company takes will vary according to sector and corporate culture. Some businesses are further along the path toward sustainability than others. Companies that have successfully addressed particular challenges are highlighted throughout the site.
Each business has to create its own strategy for success, addressing both the risks and the opportunities of participating in the sustainable economy. That said, all of the expectations presented in the Ceres roadmap need to be addressed if a company is to achieve a comprehensive and coherent strategy.
How Are Companies Performing?
In 2012, two years after the release of The Ceres Roadmap, Ceres and Sustainalytics released a report called The Road to 2020 assessing if and how 600 of the largest U.S. companies are meeting the expectations outlined in The Ceres Roadmap.
The analysis shows there are pockets of leadership and innovation, and identifies many specific examples where lessons can be learned and applied by other businesses. But it also reveals that two years into the 2020 timeframe we still have a long way to go.
More about Ceres
Ceres is an advocate for sustainability leadership. Ceres mobilizes a powerful network of investors, companies and public interest groups to accelerate and expand the adoption of sustainable business practices and solutions to build a healthy global economy.
Our mission is to mobilize investor and business leadership to build a thriving, sustainable global economy.
Founded by a small group of investors in 1989 in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Ceres has been working for more than 20 years to weave sustainable strategies and practices into the fabric and decision-making of companies, investors and other key economic players
The Ceres coalition and networks
Ceres is uniquely positioned at the nexus of the business, investment and advocacy communities. To advance our mission and vision, we leverage the power of our partners—leading investors, Fortune 500 companies, thought leaders and policymakers—to positively influence change. To accomplish our mission, Ceres relies on the power and expertise of the companies we engage with, the investors we bring together and the public interest groups we work with.
Ceres Coalition
Ceres works with more than 130 member organizations that make up the Ceres Coalition to engage with corporations and help advance our goal of building a sustainable global economy. These members include environmental and social non-profit groups such as NRDC, Union of Concerned Scientists and Oxfam, institutional investors such as the California and New York public pension funds, socially responsible investors (SRIs), labour unions and other key stakeholders. In recent years, Ceres has expanded the coalition’s expertise to include more social issues such as diversity and human rights.
Company Network
We work with more than 80 companies across a broad range of sectors committed to engaging with diverse stakeholders, improving their performance on social and environmental issues and disclosing strategies and progress publicly. One third of our network companies are Fortune 500 firms from the apparel, auto, electric power, financial services, oil & gas, technology and other sectors.
Investor Network
Ceres works with investors worldwide to improve corporate strategies and public policies on climate change and other environmental and social challenges across the global economy. Our investor partners include state treasurers, institutional investors, labour groups and socially responsible investment (SRI) funds. In 2003, Ceres launched the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network that now includes 100 leading investors collectively managing more than $11 trillion in assets.