Sustainability: business, life, environment

In our sustainability consulting, we ask prospective businesses partners and clients: "Are you currently implementing sustainability into your business?”  Encouragingly we are hearing more and more affirmative answers to the question.  For those not making changes, the response to the question often comes in the form of a question.

•    “What is Sustainability?”
•    “How does Sustainability apply to my business?”

The business leaders that do not have an understanding of sustainability concepts often offer one of the following explanations for not pursuing sustainability in their business:

•    This is a dramatic shift from how we currently do business.
•    Now is not the right time to be making changes.
•    Implementing business sustainability concepts will be too costly.

In my professional consulting experience, I find that companies frequently become overly focused on the execution of dated business goals.  Too often business models and strategies become stagnate, and companies fail to take proactive or immediate action to respond to the changing environment. 

“Most business people are so busy working for their business or in their business that they never find time to work on their business. Thus they fail to anticipate what might happen or what they might be able to make happen”. –The Fast East the Slow


The good news is that any business model or strategy can be modified to include sustainability. Start by asking your current business model a few questions:

•    Is the competition implementing sustainability concepts into their business?

•    Is there new competition entering the market that is doing things differently?

•    How are your consumers responding to sustainable offerings now available in the market?

•    Which associated or new market sectors are affecting consumer behaviors?

•    What is your primary differentiation from the competition?

•    Who are your business sustainability stakeholders and how do they view your current business sustainability?

•    How can I tweak my current business sustainability strategy to successfully balance short and long term company goals with the values of my stakeholders?

By anticipating and taking proactive steps to address change in the business world, sustainable businesses are capturing immediate value and establishing themselves as leaders in the industry.  Our sustainability consulting encourages clients to capitalize on the competitive advantage of building sustainability concepts directly into the company’s business model.