Sustainability: business, life, environment

The concepts of social responsibility, business sustainability and living a sustainable lifestyle have been around for a long time.  However, these conversations have been traditionally been between a smaller set of social and business practitioners.  Today, we are all exploring sustainability as an engrained part of our lives.

At the 1972 United Nations Conference in Sweden, the modern day principles of sustainability were introduced.  Over the last 35 years, these modern sustainability concepts have gradually made their way into daily living and the business world.

Business sustainability has already moved from just a nice to have concept to a real topic of discussion in board rooms around the world.  It continues to expand past traditional thinking of it being a costly add-on to now an integral part of business profitability. 

As a result, there are an ever-increasing number of alternative products and services available to consumers.  This has, in turn, perpetuated an increase in consumer eco awareness and desires for better and better products as consumer explore new possibilities.

Companies now realize that social and environmental issues really are important to consumers and do affect business value drivers.  Today’s business leaders are taking business sustainability to the next level and exploring new business sustainability models by making sustainable “things” more profitable for the future.

•    Generate revenue through a sustainable society and environment
•    Drive cost savings out of sustainable processes that create business efficiencies
•    “Creating value in sustainable practices”

The exploration of business sustainability is a journey in which companies are finding imperative to meet consumer demands.  Through the implementation of more sustainable practices, businesses are now finding innovative ways to extract benefits from sustainability in all processes to deliver better products and services.