Understanding Sustainability - Parts 1 and 2
Last updated 6/1/2010 10:17:48 AM
Simon Goldsmith - Principled Sunstainability
From the roundtables of world leaders, the boardrooms of corporations, to local supermarkets and in schools, sustainability has become a key word, an important practice for the future. But, how well is this term understood to realise its actual fruition?
Simon Goldsmith, founder and director of Principled Sustainability enlightens on this misunderstood subject.
1. What is Principled Sustainability about?
Principled Sustainability encourages dialogue that enables organisations and individuals to understand what roles they want in helping deliver a future vision of a sustainable society. We engage clients in this essential topic, applying methodologies that illustrate what sustainability for them would look like and assist in helping clients set the path to achieve this.
We think achieving sustainability is essential, challenging and possible. It requires organisations to first spend time understanding the importance of the issue and align actions that meet basic human needs and that work within environmental constraints whilst providing return on investment. Principled Sustainability works to challenge, motivate and facilitate to help organisations and individuals realise the many opportunities that sustainability can deliver.
2. 'Sustainability' as a term seems to be a part of companies' (big and small) business manifestos, and even at public level it is referenced to promote 'the green way' of life - what are companies and organisations realising (and why advocating) the importance of sustainability?
Although sustainability is a term used by organisations I think the term has often been misused, and the concept under-used or ignored. As a concept it is rarely articulated or related to key organisational goals although it is often inter-related to them all. Political debate and policy and the business pages of most newspapers and magazines rarely pick up the issue, except for climate change issues, the impacts of which consequences of poor sustainability decisions.
Companies and public bodies have made progress, though it is unclear and almost impossible to find evidence of clear strategies that will deliver a future sustainable society or that even show more than a piecemeal improvement in their practices. Such forward-thinking strategies can identify and avoid future social and environmental risks to businesses, avoiding costs and identifying opportunities by taking a holistic approach of the organisations activities and impacts.
There are businesses and governments that have taken the lead. Interface, a global floor covering business, is a fine and much used example of how one person, Ray Anderson, successfully and profitably realigned his business using strict sustainability criteria. Nike is doing the same applying clear sustainability decision-making processes from design, procurement and manufacturing stages through to recycling of used sports shoes.
Smaller companies have made significant progress, often with limited resources such as howies and Innocent driven largely by owners that see the creative synergy of imbedding ethics into their respected and increasingly valuable brands.
Most of companies I mentioned here had a sense of ethical responsibility ingrained in their personalities leading to sustainability becoming a clear authentic driver within the company practices. Much work needs to be done to bring the vast majority of the other businesses on board that are required to focus on increasing returns for shareholders. If business leaders ‘get' sustainability, maybe they can become passionate about it and follow in the footsteps or even step out of the footsteps of the companies mentioned above.
3. In a historical context, what recent (in the last 10-20 years) events have lead to the application of sustainability to business strategies?
Although organisations have reacted to a number of environmental and social issues over the last couple of decades I don't believe these have generally made organisations develop holistic sustainability strategies that inform day-to-day decision-making at the board level.
Sustainability programmes have tended to deal with specific issues such as climate change, resource depletion, cost reduction through resource efficiency and pollution control, ethical sourcing and supply chain management. This has generated some welcome and significant improvements, though it hasn't always created the opportunities for companywide innovative and creative approaches that could avoid costly future environmental and social impacts.
Recently the ceo of Coca Cola, Muhtar Kent, said that he doesn't have a chief sustainability officer, as that role is also his. The company recognises increasing resource constrains, for example oil based inputs, water, and other natural resource stresses will impact the company, and unless it proactively identifies creative means to develop sustainable solutions it will be forced to pay higher prices and deal with greater uncertainty of the availability of resources and also consumers good will. Like many organisations that take sustainability seriously Coke consider it a no-brainer, sustainability reduces costs, reduces risks, improves brand reputation and value, generates staff motivation and releases creativity and innovation.
Second part ... next page