Thai executives closely attuned to sustainability, survey finds

The survey interviewed 1,476 executives in 16 markets worldwide, including four in Asia: Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, a report on the survey said.

"Executives in Thailand, Singapore and Germany paid attention to environmental, social and governance principles despite economic issues," Google Cloud Thailand country manager April Srivikorn said on Thursday.

She said 85% of Thai executives are aware that customers are likely to cooperate with brands that pay attention to sustainability.

"Meanwhile, 84% believe that a delay in sustainable development will have an impact on their organisations," April said.

She added that 76% of executives who did not pay attention to sustainability were facing challenges achieving sustainability goals.

Many Thai executives are being pressured to focus on increasing revenue and creating closer relationships with customers, she said.

Others are facing accusations of greenwashing, she said, referring to the term used to describe companies that remain exploitative but invest in deceptive marketing to portray themselves as devout protectors of the environment.

She said 69% of Thai respondents said they had been blamed for mistakes in sustainable development projects, while 83% said they did not intend to engage in greenwashing.

"Sustainable development is necessary for Thai businesses, but greenwashing and economic issues could affect development progress," April said.

She advised executives to implement data-driven programmes to improve efficiency and accurate measurements of progress towards sustainability.

She said 63% of Thai executives already have data-driven programmes for sustainable development and that 67% of them believe their programmes are important to achieve their sustainability goals.

Apart from improving organisational structure and applying skill-building programmes, April said executives should streamline the working process.

She said 96% of Thai respondents said cross-functional working could enable them to achieve sustainability goals rather than setting up specific working teams.

Respondents also study and contact experts to achieve their sustainability goals, she said, adding that executives can use technologies to work on sustainable development, such as cloud, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

"Technology is a pathway to sustainable growth," the Google Cloud Thailand country manager said.