Sustainability: business, life, environment

Most business leaders would probably agree that achieving real bottom line improvements, whether in cost savings or improved revenues, is critical to business sustainability. They might further comment that the concept of business sustainability is not new, and in fact, has been around for a long time. You might hear them say, “It is a journey they have been on from the first day we were in business…we are always looking for ways to continuously improve the bottom line”.
 
As a sustainability consultant, I agree that maintaining business operations has always been the goal of business. However, the business sustainability concepts of today that are required for continued operations into the future are quite different than they were just 10years ago. Leading businesses today are looking at the triple bottom line and the importance of social and environmental impacts to the future of their businesses.
 
In previous posts, business sustainability has been described as a continuous improvement process marked by risk management, raised eco awareness, innovation, and proactive change.  At Taiga Company, we would contend business sustainability be an all encompassing continuous improvement process enabled by other business improvement efforts.
 
Take for example the implementation of Toyota’s Lean principles or Motorola’s Six Sigma programs. The goal of these implementations is to improve operations and create a competitive edge to stay in business. Benefits include:
 
    · Improve operational effectiveness
    · Discover areas for improvement in current operations
    · Create sustainable process that are aligned with the overall business strategy
    · Deliver value to the bottom line through process improvement activities
 
Adding the current view of sustainability to these processes, you can see a reduction in waste streams and improved energy efficiency. These efforts add value to more than just the economic bottom line.
 
The implementation of efforts to improve business operations that are aligned with sustainability concepts are part of the larger continuous pursuit of business sustainability.