Sustainability: business, life, environment

For many businesses, it is that time of year when businesses are beginning their budget planning for the coming year.  Companies, large and small, are laying out budgets, strategies and work plans that they feel will help their businesses prosper in 2011.   Generally, most companies aspire to grow in size and increase profitability each year.  In some cases, through divestitures or restructuring, a company may also choose to decrease in size based on its annual business strategies.  In both cases, financial success is not exclusively evaluated, internally or externally, based upon an absolute comparison to the previous year’s results.  Like these financial measures, shouldn’t business sustainability targets be evaluated in the context of business growth?
 
The post, Choose the Right Flavor: Ice-Cream, Sustainability & Business Innovation, the author and green supply chain expert, Dave Meyer, equates choosing your flavor of ice cream to choosing your brand of business sustainability.   In a nutshell, act on what inspires your organization to get the proverbial sustainability ball rolling.  Specifically applied to small businesses owners concerned about resource constraints (falsely) associated with implementing sustainable business strategies, it's about taking it bit by bit but incorporating environmental and social awareness as both short and long term planning.  "The “look” and “feel” of sustainability then, depends on the level of enlightenment that a company has, the desired “end state” and on the depth of its resources to execute the change (see Joel Makower’s recent post in Two Steps Forward)."
 
For larger organizations, how does planning factor into the 2011 budget?  "One way is through a systematic framework like an ISO 14001-based Environmental Management System (EMS).  While ‘sustainability’ is a guiding principle to keep organizations on track as an EMS is executed, an EMS is the framework – a set of processes and tools for effective mission accomplishment".
 
Our business sustainability consulting experience at Taiga Company has shown that each business has its own focus and value drivers, which give a company a unique view of sustainability.  Our sustainability consulting practice works with clients to build a focused business sustainability plan and sustainability concepts into a company’s long-range business objectives.  We work with business leaders, work groups, and stakeholders to recognize the importance of business sustainability as a critical value component of company growth and success.  Contact us to include sustainability programs in your 2011 budget planning.