Today's security leaders manage competing business priorities that can go beyond helping protect people and property, including decisions about business continuity, emergency preparedness, and operational efficiency. At the same time, organizations are being asked to strengthen resilience, prepare for emerging risks, and demonstrate responsible business practices.
Sustainability has become part of that conversation, particularly as organizations look to connect sustainability strategy with operational efficiency and long-term business resilience. It can influence decisions about procurement, technology investments, fleet operations, workforce planning, and how organizations can prepare for disruption.
For Leif Skogberg, Sustainability Manager for Securitas North America, the growing focus on sustainability reflects a larger shift in how organizations think about long-term business performance. Rather than treating sustainability as a separate initiative or a reporting requirement, he sees an opportunity for organizations to use it to understand risk better, manage resources, and make decisions that support resilience.
"I would challenge the notion that sustainability is primarily an environmental initiative. Sustainability is a business strategy," Leif says. Specifically, it's a business integration and resilience strategy that helps organizations better understand their broader risk profile, internalize externalities (such as emissions), and strengthen the human and environmental systems all businesses depend on to operate successfully.
That perspective is becoming increasingly relevant to security leaders as environmental, economic, and social risks begin to affect supply chains, infrastructure, resources, and business continuity more directly.
Why sustainability is becoming a business priority
Sustainability is gaining attention across different parts of the business, influenced by changing policy requirements, investor and client expectations, insurance priorities, and the need to manage operating costs. For Leif, those pressures reflect a larger shift in how organizations think about resilience and their ability to keep operating through change.
“In addition to the confluence of new policy requirements, investment industry risk mitigation, insurance industry prioritization of loss prevention, consumer and client demand for sustainability, and the need for reducing operational costs, organizations are increasingly recognizing that sustainability is fundamentally about business resilience,” Leif says.
Environmental, economic, and social conditions can affect the resources and systems organizations rely on every day. Supply chains, infrastructure, and access to resources can all affect business continuity, giving leaders another reason to consider these factors when they plan for disruption.
For security leaders, sustainability can be another consideration when making decisions that support an organization's long-term resilience and ability to operate. That creates a natural connection between sustainability and security, particularly as organizations prepare for risks that can affect people, operations, and business continuity.
Where security and sustainability meet
Security and sustainability might sit in different parts of an organization, but their objectives often intersect.
“At their core, both sustainability and security are about helping protect people, assets, and the natural systems that support them,” Leif says.
Security often focuses on immediate protection, while sustainability considers how resources can be managed for the long term. As environmental conditions affect communities and businesses, however, those time horizons begin to overlap.
Severe weather can disrupt operations and infrastructure. Resource shortages can place pressure on communities and supply chains. Environmental changes can contribute to conditions that increase vulnerability and create additional security concerns.
Leif also points to the relationship between environmental conditions and security needs.
“As the environment or the climate declines, you will need more security. Conversely, as we protect and restore the natural environment, and for example plant more trees in Cities, it reduces human stress, vulnerability, and crimes of desperation.”
For security leaders, that connection offers another reason to look beyond an immediate incident or threat. Understanding the conditions that contribute to vulnerability can help organizations make better decisions about how they help protect people, operations, and the communities around them.
What clients expect from their security partners
Sustainability is also becoming part of how organizations evaluate the companies they work with.
“Security industry clients increasingly want partners who can help them navigate and mitigate a more expansive and complex risk landscape,” Leif says.
Clients want to know how potential partners operate, not simply what services they provide. Questions about ethics, labor and human rights, sustainable procurement and carbon emissions can increasingly enter the evaluation process, alongside more traditional measures of security performance.
For security providers, this creates an opportunity to show how their operations can support the priorities of the organizations they serve. It also creates room for deeper conversations about business continuity, resource management, and long-term resilience.
How technology can support security and sustainability
The connection between security and sustainability becomes particularly practical when looking at mobile security and technology.
Technology-enabled patrols, connected fleets, and data-driven operations can help security teams understand how resources are being used and where operations can become more efficient. Better route planning can reduce unnecessary travel, while connected vehicles can provide greater visibility into fleet activity and performance.
“Technology-enabled patrols, connected fleets, and data-driven operations help optimize resources, reduce unnecessary travel, lower operating costs, and improve response times,” Leif says. “The result is stronger security performance combined with more efficient and sustainable operations that create value for security companies and clients.”
Technology can also help organizations measure progress against sustainability goals.
“As sustainability and security become even more linked, I believe technological innovation will play a key role in tracking, monitoring, reporting, and forecasting sustainability goals.”
For security leaders, that creates an opportunity to look at technology investments through more than one lens. A mobile security program, for example, can support security coverage while also giving organizations information that helps them understand resource use and operational efficiency.
Rethinking what security helps protect
Leif believes the relationship between sustainability and security will become more important over the next decade, particularly as environmental and resource-related risks begin to affect business continuity more directly.
“Over the next decade, sustainability and security will become increasingly inseparable,” he says.
As environmental security becomes a more significant business concern, organizations may need to consider the systems that allow people and businesses to operate in the first place: air, water, food, energy and shelter.
“The security industry is uniquely positioned to help organizations monitor environmental and climate-related risks and resources, prepare for and mitigate natural disasters, and support organizational and community response and recovery efforts.”
That could create new opportunities for security providers to support organizations before, during, and after disruptive events. Leif points to areas such as bioregional and regenerative supply chains, environmental resource security, emergency supplies, clean water access, off-grid energy, and post-disaster support.
The idea expands how security leaders can think about protection. Rather than focusing only on the assets within an organization, they can also consider the systems those assets depend on.
“The future of security is not just protecting assets from threats. It is helping clients build resilient systems and supporting business communities to thrive amid increasingly complex environmental, economic, and social challenges.”
Environmental security may shape the next decade.
Leif sees environmental security as an area where the industry could have an increasingly important role.
“I believe the next evolution of security is environmental security,” he says. “As climate and resource-related risks continue to intensify, organizations that understand the connections between climate, severe weather, water, food, energy, shelter, and business operations will be better positioned to create resilience for their clients, employees and broader stakeholders.”
That perspective asks security leaders to consider a wider range of factors when assessing how organizations can remain resilient. Environmental conditions, resource availability, and business operations don't exist independently, and changes in one area can affect the others.
Sustainability can give security leaders another lens for decisions about resources, staffing, partnerships, technology, and long-term growth. As organizations prepare for a wider range of risks, bringing sustainability into those conversations can help connect immediate security needs with the conditions that support long-term resilience.
For Leif, that's what makes sustainability a business imperative: it isn't separate from the work of helping protect people, organizations, and communities. It's increasingly part of understanding what they need to remain secure and resilient in the years ahead.
