Business Sustainability

Many businesses seem to be challenged when it comes to sustainability. Why? Because everyone in a business is (should be!) focussed on achieving the outcomes desired by investors.
When you're focussed on your cash flow, or satisfying your latest client, or polishing your webite, acting sustainably can seem to be a low priority. It's something that can be done next week, when that quote's been sent out.

Of course, by next week, there'll be a new problem that will cause the small business owner to defer their thinking on sustainability. It's one of those things, like business planning, that is important, but not urgent. As a result, it rarely happens - because there's always urgent things to be done, and thinking about the longer term is harder than answering the phone, calling your supplier about the holdup, and chasing a customer for payment of that invoice you sent last month.

For the business owner, there's also the question of whether the investment in time (because that's what we're talking about) is worthwhile. There will usually be opportunities to save money on resources (energy, other raw materials). There will usually be opportunities to reduce costs of waste (disposal). Where production is involved, there may even be new costs to deal with the proper disposal of pollutants.

Where production has been outsourced, there may be messy issues associated with how your goods have been made - are workers being paid fairly? Is the factory safe? Does the factory pollute the local water supply?

"What's in it for me?" asks the business owner. "Why would I waste my valuable time on this?"

The answers are the same for the small business owner as for the large corporate. You do it to protect your brand. You do it to manage risk. You do it because your customers are asking questions. You do it because you are concerned about climate change. You may do it simply because it's the right thing to do.

The important thing is that you do it. You take the first steps to make your business more sustainable. And then you take the next, and the next.

Teen sex and corporate sustainability

Marc Gunther tells a joke comparing corporate sustainability and teen sex - you can find his original article here. The joke goes:

"Corporate sustainability is like teen sex. Everybody talks about it. Nobody does it very much. And when they do it, they don't do it very well."

So why is it that few companies "do" sustainability well? The entry points into sustainability seem (to me) to be simply good business practice. One focus, for example, is on managing resources efficiently, whether that be energy, people or other raw material inputs. How many businesses would argue that managing costs is of no concern?

Another is being a responsible citizen (for example, taking care of your waste outputs by either reducing or eliminating them). And in these days of social media, whereby a product or brand can be (and have been) slated by their consumers, causing significant impact on sales - why wouldn't a business want to be seen to be doing "the right thing".

Perhaps it's the label - "sustainability" - that causes business managers to shy away. Maybe it seems too esoteric, or tree-hugging, not related to the hard day-to-day problems that concern them. Such as where their next sale is going to come from, or how to keep their costs down...

Many companies seem to see sustainability as something else that they have to do - rather than it being part of who they are and how they operate. And because that something else isn't part of the core business - guess what? It either doesn't get done, or where it is done, it's done poorly.

I would argue that the reverse is actually true. That consideration of sustainability in company operations is integral to the long term survivability of an organisation.

In today's markets with today's networked customers, a company that considers sustainability as something extra is a company with a limited future.