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. 

Welcome Back

OK I have been told over and over again the trick to a good blog is consistency – so I apologize for my tardiness. But I have a good excuse, I went on vacation. A well deserved and needed vacation. Sustainability is about balance right?

I went to Vietnam for 3 weeks with a dear friend of mine who I have known for almost 30 years.
I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world throughout my life. In my interest in sustainability – having this insight has proven to be a double edged sword. Fundamentally what ever people say people anywhere in the world are truly all alike. No matter where I have traveled, conversations flow the same, we talk of the weather, the changes in the world, our families, and how to say Hello and Thank you in each other’s languages. This gives me such great hope, an idea that we can truly conquer any problem that will face us as a human species. On the other hand I also see a world that is evolving in a way that just cannot be sustainable. So many people in this world live with so little, and as they have the right to lift themselves out of poverty, even just beyond poverty I wonder how we as a global society will do this?

To adequately house, heal, feed, provide clean water, sewage, and transportation for all of us cannot be done in the way we have started. I can say that by seeing it in action. I live in the state of California and I know first hand what it looks like when we try and get everyone in the state in a car… I have seen in many developing countries add  the development of housing and I question how it can be done with the resources available?
I know the solution isn’t easy and it will come from a place of evolution and trial and error. I think the best we have to start is with ourselves and how we live and how if we know better we can make a difference, this buys us time. This gives others an opportunity time to make the changes that we need to.

So I come home from my trip with a sense of optimism for sustainability. There is a powerful undercurrent of our global connection and when we learn things, when we are inspired we are called to act and make a difference. Seeing how connected we all are makes me want to put more into actions and continue the path.