By Design, Not by Default

For a long time, there has been a major assumption about Sustainability in business. Not always explicitly stated, but clearly communicated through actions taken by the majority of businesses: Sustainability should happen by default.

Whether through the power of intrinsically-motivated leadership or due to the nature of the industry, some companies just "get it". Outsiders assume these leading companies default to sustainable actions - seemingly at odds with stakeholder interests or other business goals. 

Other companies wait until their hands are forced, by bad press from negative consequences of unsustainable practices or other means. These companies ignore sustainable options until they are in the middle of controversy and must respond quickly, without preparation, and often under the scrutiny of the public eye. 

But as a whole, people are beginning to recognize that true sustainable business practice must happen by design and not be default. Those first companies succeed not because they stick to sustainability despite good business sense - it is because they have incorporated sustainability into the core of their business strategy. Sustainability is a lens through which we can view our business practices and make decisions not to the detriment of stakeholder value, but to enhance everything we do as value creators. 

The other kind of company may not have holistically implemented sustainability into its business strategy - but still is beginning to recognize the value of considering sustainability as a highly effective method of risk management, as a tool for capturing more customer value through marketing, as a longer term and truer financial valuation of the company not just in the snapshot of today but as it will exist ten years in the future. 

So, wherever you are of the spectrum of completely integrating Sustainability into your business strategy or just looking to explore how sustainability can enhance your business strategy, grab your drafting pencils and blueprint paper. As in building anything else, constructing Sustainability into your business strategy starts from the foundation. It is a material with which we use to build structure and strength into our businesses - not a coat of green paint we apply liberally to the outside whenever green is en vogue. Sustainability ensures we will succeed, sustain, and thrive well into the future. 

Share a little B-Love

B can stand for a lot of things - some important to me? Bassett, Beer, Business, Duke Basketball (I just threw that one in there for my boyfriend) and today's B goes to Benefit.

I have been thinking a lot about how structure dictates behaviour and if a company's structure dictates its behavior - what would it look like if that were changed.  I imagine this is a similar question that the folks at B Corporation thought about and then did something around.  In their case B stands for Benefit Corporation where their Declaration of independence says it all:

We envision a new sector of the economy

which harnesses the power of private enterprise to create public benefit.

This sector is comprised of a new type of corporation the B Corporation

which is purpose-driven and creates benefit for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

As members of this emerging sector and as entrepreneurs and investors in B Corporations,

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

- That we must be the change we seek in the world.

- That all business ought to be conducted as if people and place mattered.

- That, through their products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all.

- To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we are each dependent upon another 

and thus responsible for each other and future generations.

While B Corporation didn't start certifying companies until 2007 they already have 381 companies covering 54 different industries.  As social and environmental responsibility starts to percolate deeper into the various aspects of business companies are going to step it up to authenticate their values.  Being certified will be important to build that trust with the investment and customer communities. Keep thinking of all of these initiatives as a part of a building momentum to moving our mainstream business climate in the direction of embodying social and environmental factors for all of our survival.