sustainable business is good business
article by Richard Matthews
Sustainability is not a passing fad or a marketing gimmick, it is a global movement that is changing the way we do business. Sustainability involves continued development or growth, without significant degradation of the environment and depletion of natural resources on which human welfare depends. This definition measure income as the flow of goods and services an economy can generate indefinitely without reducing its natural productive capacity.
Sustainability is more than a trend, a trend showing a pattern of gradual change in a state, output, or process, or an average or general tendency of a series of data points in a certain direction to move over time, represented by a line or curve on a graph. The term megatrend was popularized by John Naisbitt in his 1982 bestseller “megatrends.” Rather than being a function of a set of data points, the term megatrend reflects a general shift in thinking and approach that all countries, industries and organizations
In the May 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review There is a feature article titled “The sustainability imperative.” The function was written by David Lubin of the Sustainability Network and Daniel Esty of Yale University. Together they argue that sustainability is the next transformational business megatrend comparable with mass production, manufacturing quality movement, IT revolution and globalization
The authors suggest that companies seeking a competitive advantage to get should know what to do and how to do it. With many already aboard businesses must act now, as this unstoppable megatrend will make or break companies around the world
While we are at a relatively early stage of the sustainability megatrend, it can be expected to continue to grow exponentially.There at least four critical areas for businesses to improve their sustainability, they include methods, strategy, management, and reporting
to the specialized needs of sustainability to address is companies with new business. Specifically, companies were using customary practices and systematic process accuracy and efficiency to achieve, often in an ordered sequence of fixed steps. Sustainable methods include analysis of business cases, trend spot, scenario planning and risk modeling.
sustainable strategy involves the planning of a company’s footprint reduction. This implies the use of resources effectively and efficiently. Using analytical data, companies can themselves distinctive sustainability strategies. Many aspects of the strategy development will remain single, but companies are increasingly adopting open-source approaches that rely on outside help
Some companies are sustainable instructed their managers to sustainability objectives in compensation models, reviews, and other management processes
Some companies have invested in technology to record and report environmental events such as villages and waste disposal. An environmental management plan system, the basis for the implementation of policy, practice, goal setting, decision making, and data capture
Sustainability concerns involved. Obvious issues such as efficiency, carbon intensity and transparency, green, green energy use, GHG reductions, toxic emissions, packaging, water intensity, paper and recycling. Other less obvious issues include cleantech investments and patents, employee commuting, telecommuting, environmental impact and financial waste in manufacturing
There are many things businesses can do to sustain, and excellent reasons to do so, the right vision and effective implementation can help companies compete and winners emerge. Inadequate sustainability efforts could deeply undermine a company’s ability to compete and survive. Some even big companies have seen their iconic brands crumble to dust because of their failure to pro-actively adapt to the emerging of megatrends. GM and Kodak are just two examples
Many companies around the world now has a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), including AT & T (U.S.), SAP (Germany), and LoyaltyOne (Canada) Other looking forward to companies already benefit from their sustainable positioning. By focusing on better than competitors on regulatory compliance 3M’s Pollution Prevention Pays reduce pollution by more than 2.6 billion pounds and saved the company more than billion
DuPont understand the environmental risks heavier as potential income. That is why under a zero waste commitment Dupont chose him to push his holding, a large eco-footprints, like nylon and matt
Dow’s 2015 sustainability goals new products delivered in the areas of the solar roof shingles hybrid batteries. Its core business, which traditionally relied on the commodity chemicals had moved to advanced materials and high-tech energy opportunities
IBM their environmental management system as the basis for policy development, practice, goal setting, decision making, and data capture
Some companies have made valiant efforts, but this does not preclude room for improvement.
Walmart sustainability goals and 38 earlier this month, their third sustainability report. This year, Walmart’s new new climate goal is to its products’ lifecycle 20 million metric tons of carbon pollution reduction and supply chain over the next five years. But other areas still need improvement, Walmart needs to focus on the waste and they need the means to measure their progress on the package
Pioneer companies. Already reaping the fruits of their sustained efforts and a growing number of businesses to realize that define success in sustainable positioning is improved customer loyalty, competitiveness and cost savings
About the author
Richard Matthews, a consultant, sustainable investor and author. He is the owner of THE Greenmarket Square , one of the web’s most comprehensive sources of information and tools on sustainability. He is also the author of numerous articles on sustainable positioning, green investing, Enviro-political and eco-capitalism.