Can Green Business be More Profitable?

For years, our professional consulting has worked with business leaders who, like all, are very concerned about the initial investments required to capture the long-term value of business sustainability. Almost always and without exception, we are asked by clients: "What is the true cost of sustainability?"

Especially in this economy, businesses are looking for immediate return on their investments. Companies want to make sure they are committing capital to the right business strategies. It is these start-up concerns that often have businesses around the world stalled on the brink of sustainable improvements.

In a recent post, What is the Business Cost of Sustainability, we discussed the value of providing transparency to business sustainability costs.   Many companies assume the initial cost of sustainable development or fail to assign the cost to products and services realizing the value.

In evaluating the costs associated with business sustainability, companies are encouraged to consider:

•    What are the additional resources required to make sustainable change?
•    Are shared resources assumed to be cost neutral?
•    Is the profitability of a green product or service considering the full cost?
•    Are green products and services carrying their full costs forward into their pricing?

Few business implementing sustainability concepts today are doing so from a clean slate. Sustainable business practices are finding their way into existing company offerings. Businesses need to be able to tie specific value generation back to the start-up cost of business sustainability implementations.