Despite the fact that latest unemployment stats show the Canadian economy is growing again, many businesses are still finding themselves stranded in the doldrums of the Recession Sea. Can you relate? If so, you may be thinking “I need a new angle drum up business. I need to show I’m different from my competition. Maybe this green thing is what my business needs. The pundits are saying that green and clean are what’s going to resurrect from the recession first. . .”
So, as you rub your hands together, now thinking about how to get started, don’t short change your business by framing the greening project as “cleaning up your act a little” with recycling bins and a tree planting.
The trouble with being less bad is that it’s a reaction. Not that reactions are inherently bad. They’re just limiting. In contrast, you could frame your greening project as an opportunity to create value – and more of it.
In Peter Senge’s The Necessary Revolution, chapter 9 outlines a way to explore these opportunities for sustainable value based on the work of Hart and Milstein. I’ve posted a version of their decision matrix I created for my work with the apparel industry at Fashion Takes Action, so you can follow along.)
Creating Business Value with Sustainable Practices
Most initiatives start by focusing on the present, internal opportunities, such as minimizing waste and emissions from operations. The most appealing payoffs to green newbies are here: cost and risk reduction.
Another set of powerful payoffs are in the present, external arena. Companies will work hard to integrate the concerns and needs of diverse stakeholders in order to maintain (or improve) their reputation in civil society.
Looking at the future, internal workings of a company helps them to envision the competencies they could develop by investing in innovation and repositioning the company as a whole.
But what about a future, external perspective that’s bigger than any one company? Can a company create sustainable value around the issues of climate change, resource depletion or poverty? Companies such as Dupont and General Electric are showing that it is.
Two examples that I personally admire are Fashion Takes Action and the City of Toronto’s Tower Renewal program. Both are taking great strides to create sustainable value for business and civil society that will have immediate and future payoffs.
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