“Business
is the only mechanism on the planet today powerful enough to produce the
changes necessary to reverse global environmental and social degradation.”
~Paul
Hawken
We are at a crossroads in our society, and it seems that
businesses are holding the cards. It is businesses that will determine the fate
of the world as we know it, and whether our manufactured need for the latest
and greatest tech gadget every six months will outweigh our need for clean air,
potable water and actual food.
For the past six years, I have been managing UnCommon Sense, a leadership and peer
support program in sustainable operations. We work with businesses and
organizations over the course of two years to implement, track and quantify the
successes and challenges of sustainability initiatives, and to make
sustainability systemic in their operations. The program has not been given a
chance to run at full capacity, and as such I am spending this year
deconstructing UnCommon Sense and
putting it back together again (Wanted:
all the king’s horses and all the king’s men). There are some major program
improvements we need to put in place, one of the primary enhancements being a
user-friendly, simple and consistent way to track metrics and quantify the
business case for sustainability.
Regardless, we’ve had some pretty awesome successes with 56 businesses
over the 8 years the program has been running. Results of course vary, yet
without fail participants have saved money, reduced their waste stream, reduced
energy use, increased employee retention and/or satisfaction, shifted to more
responsible purchasing practices, streamlined their transportation needs,
reduced their overall carbon footprint, or any combination thereof.
It seems like a pretty clean argument. If you use your
resources more efficiently, it will cost you less and you will need less of
them. It will save you money. Nike’s
doing it, and so is Patagonia. Heck, even WalMart is “doing it”. So then, why
is it so hard to get businesses and organizations to commit to sustainability?
Why is there such a disconnect between our short-term thinking and the
long-term benefits of sustainability (and the long-term ramifications of our
current trajectory)?
After six years of recruiting and working with businesses in
UnCommon Sense, I have a fairly well
rounded list of reasons why organizations don’t/can’t/won’t commit. “We’re too
busy.” “We don’t have any staff to take this on.” “It’s too expensive.” “Yeah,
it’s something we’ve been meaning to do but we just can’t right now. Maybe next
year…”
Out of curiosity, I decided to do a Google search on “why is
it so hard to get businesses to commit to sustainability?” and stumbled across The
Top 10 Reasons why Businesses Aren’t More Sustainable.
Top 10 hurdles
for business sustainability in 2011
1.
There
are too many metrics that claim to measure sustainability—and they’re too
confusing.
2.
Government
policies need to incent outcomes and be more clearly connected to
sustainability.
3.
Consumers
do not consistently factor sustainability into their purchase decisions.
4.
Companies
do not know how best to motivate employees to undertake sustainability
initiatives.
5.
Sustainability
still does not fit neatly into the business case.
6.
Companies
have difficulty discriminating between the most important opportunities and
threats on the horizon.
7.
Organizations
have trouble communicating their good deeds credibly, and avoid being perceived
as greenwashing.
8.
Better
guidelines are needed for engaging key stakeholders, such as aboriginal
communities.
9.
There
is no common set of rules for sourcing sustainably.
10. Those companies that try leading the
sustainability frontier often end up losing.
This article was from 2011, and all 10 reasons are
still relevant today. One key point is in dire need of attention and change: “Many people demand cleaner energy but
refuse, for example, to allow windmills in their community. How can we help
consumers make informed tradeoffs when it comes to sustainability?” Indeed, how can
we entice people to put their money where their mouths are?
I went on a
search to find the 2013 version, and instead came across Ten
Steps to Sustainable Business in 2013, a follow up from the 2011 article that
provides a sort of roadmap forward. The common themes are communication,
collaboration, and culture change.
1.
Create smart, integrated public policy
2.
Engage value chain members, including industry
and NGO partners.
3.
Build a national dialogue on responsible
consumption.
4.
Create organizational structures that support
sustainability.
5.
Embed sustainability in corporate culture.
6.
Provide clear and equitable directives regarding
Aboriginal rights and entitlements.
7.
Create conditions that support sustainability-related
innovation.
8.
Incorporate a social license to operate into
business strategy.
9.
Prepare organizations and society to mitigate
and adapt to climate change
10. Lessen
the burden of sustainability reporting.
This is all
well and good, but how do we actually make it happen? How do we jump those
hurdles and implement those 10 steps above, change our culture from one of disregard
to one of accountability and collaboration? The short answer is, the same way
you eat an elephant. One bite at a time.
