Business Sustainability - Eye of the Beholder (s): Enhancing Innovation, Creativity and Value Series in Sustainability and Technology.
An initial observation on the meaning of business sustainability could be concluded as a continuation of a process. Your business is an example and you want it to grow and continue to be successful. Greater insight can be gained by looking at other stakeholders that impact or are impacted by your business (e.g., customers, local community and authorities, consumers, suppliers, employees). Your business is also a stakeholder in: other businesses; the economy; society and the environment. Observations now have moved from the me to the we, realizing that we are part of a much larger sustainable system, where decisions are made that affect your business. Participating in business sustainability can open doors to business and inventive opportunity.
Business Sustainability – Definition by the Research Network for Business Sustainability
Research Network for Business Sustainability – From the context of The Brundtland Report (1985) defined business sustainability “as the incorporation of social and environmental considerations into business (e.g., longer-term compensation, environmental management, stakeholder engagement, workplace diversity, life-cycle and value chain analyses)”.
What are some of the Advantages of Implementing Business Sustainability?
- Eco-efficiency opportunities, cost savings and value enhancements in: production and product design; product life cycle and end of product strategies – cradle to grave, reduce, reuse and recycle.
- Pro-active opportunities in: marketing positioning; creating shareholder value, improving corporate citizenship and image; new and existing stakeholder engagements; and reducing environmental impacts.
How a Small Investment in Sustainability Developed Value and Unlocked Inventive Opportunity
Client: Construction Contractor
Scenario: Highly Competitive Marketplace, Price Sensitive, Working in Environmentally Sensitive Areas
A few years ago I was working with an organization in the Clean Tech Industry. One of the products the company manufactured was a vegetable oil based hydraulic fluid priced at approximately 2 to 3 times more than a petroleum product with similar product life. The low toxicity product offered the contractor the advantage of a reduction of environmental risk and in the case of a spill a possible reduction in bad publicity and clean-up cost for himself and his customers. The initial price difference was insignificant when compared to the overall equipment maintenance cost.
The contractor converted to the new product. They then went ahead and marketed the product benefits to potential customers, offering them the benefits at no extra cost. They improved their corporate image, displayed leadership and increased business for a very small investment in business sustainability.
Perry Woodworth, Technical Writer and Researcher
Enhancing Innovation, Creativity and Value. Are You Missing An Inventive Opportunity?
