Over the following weeks the authors of the paper, A new mindset for corporate sustainability, will lead a discussion over some of the more controversial issues surrounding corporate sustainability and innovation. Check back often for new topics

Bringing Natural Forces to Bear on Business Transformation 
11/04/2008
Posted by Professor Sarah Slaughter, United States

We often talk about “sustainability” when we really need to talk about “regeneration", specifically restoring the natural – and human – environments to increase the bearing capacity of a specific region.

We (humans) have been profligate not only in our use of resources but also in unnecessarily despoiling the remaining bearing capacity of the area (such as in mountaintop mining). In contrast, stable communities constantly regenerate their environment, such as using animal and plant waste as fertilizer for the fields.

Increasingly, we’re aware of our far-flung and inadvertent impacts on the natural environments and the need to not only stop doing harm but to actively repair the damage we’ve caused. There are few, if any, regions in the world that do not exhibit human influence, as seen in the recent mapping of human impacts on marine ecosystems.

If we look to the regeneration of the natural environments – and the communities that they shelter - we can recognize the forces that are transforming business and society, and identify many new opportunities for innovative approaches and solutions to respond effectively.

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Towards a quadruple bottom line: achieving sustainability in China 
22/02/2008
Posted by Professor Zhouying Jin, China

China’s economic growth over the past twenty years has been among the fastest on earth. However, this growth has not followed a sustainable pathway: the old development model incurred high costs in environmental, social and natural resources.

Given these challenges, the Chinese government has adopted a national strategy for co-ordinated scientific, comprehensive, and sustainable development. To achieve this goal, a systematic approach on five levels will be needed:

1. At a national level, long-term strategy and objectives should be integrated with mid- and short-term plans.

2. Developing strategies that together address the economy, society, environment and natural resources. As a population giant, the triple bottom line is not enough, natural resources such as energy, land and water are crucial. Therefore, we need to think in terms of a “Quadruple Bottom Line”.

3. Government functions must alter to focus on providing the right “hard” (legislative and regulatory) and “soft” (educational) environment to prepare China to address the challenges it faces. Providing an environment which benefits social organizations is also desirable.

4. Government should help Corporate China change its behavior with a scientific approach to development. Organisations like the Future 500 China are already helping Chinese companies reconcile their social, ethical and environmental responsibilities with profit-seeking.

5. Economic take-off has fundamentally changed the way the Chinese live. In this respect, government should take the lead by promoting “healthy” values and culture, whilst discarding bad habits such as conspicuous consumption and extravagance. In many respects Eastern culture already reflects these values - we view humankind, the heavens and the earth as part of the same, connected system.

If China is to be a crucial player in the global economy, then sustainable practice of China does not only benefit China’s future, it also sets new standards for other developing countries. If this model fails in emerging China, it would be a tragedy for the rest of the world.

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Environment Need Not Be An Obstacle to Asian Companies 
12/02/2008
Posted by Professor Simon Tay, Singapore

Companies in Asia are growing in their size and reach. Leading Asian companies are becoming multinationals that seek entry into markets not just in their region but also in the West. Exporting their products into these markets is one strategy. Another is to invest in the developed markets, whether as “green field" projects or by acquiring existing companies, sometimes in high-profile and controversial takeovers and mergers.

In this context, Asians may well fear that questions over their environmental stewardship erect new barriers to trade, and to investment in the West.

This need not and should not be the perspective they should take on environmental issues.

Asian companies that wish to expand across the world have to be more strategic, competitive and efficient. They must learn to meet the rising expectations of their customers and shareholders and also speak to the values of their employees. If they wish to be world class, they must increasingly care about the earth.

Some companies have begun to understand this: that environment and corporate concerns of profitability and competitiveness are not mutually exclusive and can be reconciled.

Even then, they need to go beyond why they should do this. They need to learn how this can be achieved. Examples and case studies are needed. But the business and its leaders must learn to adapt their key lessons, and learn from putting them into practice to sharpen their saw through continuing review and improvement.

Environmental concerns need not be an obstacle to Asian companies. They are however a challenge. Those Asian companies that intend to succeed in the world can and must rise to that challenge.

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The Value of Values 
04/02/2008
Posted by Dr. Miguel Ángel Rodriguez, Spain

Ever since the idea of corporate sustainability began to take hold in management and academic literature – not to mention the press – many of its proponents have championed its financial value. In other words, sustainable business delivers shareholder value. Of course, this is important, very important. But our paper shows that approaching sustainability with the financial bottom line alone in mind is the wrong approach, even within heavily bottom line-oriented organisations.

The two basic arguments that connect sustainability and value creation are innovation and reputation. When well managed, both depend on companies being open towards their stakeholders, keeping an honest and fluid dialogue with them. And the financial bottom line is not the only or most important consideration for most stakeholders: employees and local communities, for example, are generally more interested in the company’s record as an employer or its local standing than the state of its balance sheet. As a result, companies must enlarge their value system to embrace a wider set of values, which align with those of all of their stakeholders.

If they fail to manage this, a deep chasm will emerge between their worlds, dialogue and cooperation will become impossible, and the promise of sustainability delivering financial value will be broken.

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Small is Sustainable 
23/01/2008
Posted by Professor David Grayson, United Kingdom

Our paper mainly uses examples from big, multinational businesses, but our message that a commitment to sustainability can be a source of commercial innovation, is just as relevant to small businesses.

I was reminded of this, when participating in the World Entrepreneurship Summit last week, in London.

The event cleverly brought together the worlds of sustainability and of entrepreneurship. It included venture capitalists specialising in clean tech; social entrepreneurs using business skills to address societal problems; and people from many different businesses. It was especially interesting to hear serial entrepreneurs who have already created successful businesses and continue to invest in new enterprises, but who are now focussing on business ideas which address environmental and social issues. An increasing number of such entrepreneurs have portfolio lives: combining involvement in a number of for-profit enterprises, hybrid “social enterprises” and campaigning NGOs.

In "Small is sustainable (and Beautiful!). Encouraging European Smaller Enterprises to be Sustainable" Tom Dodd and I offer more ideas about the messages and the messengers to persuade many more smaller businesses across Europe to take up the ideas of a “New Corporate Mindset for Sustainability”. One of our conclusions is that smaller companies are likely only to heed the examples of their peers: lecturing by governments may actually be counterproductive.

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The language of success? 
19/01/2008
Posted by Dr. Mark Lemon, United Kingdom

If we compare the words slack, fat and redundancy with lean, flat and fit we tend to engender a negative picture on the one side and a positive picture on the other. What might this mean for Corporate Sustainability? While sustainability does not necessarily mean building inefficiency into an organisation, although there could be innovation and learning benefits in doing so on occasions, it does mean the generation of ‘adaptive capability’ and this in turn means an element of slack or redundancy. In the same way that our personal finances need to be cushioned against the unforeseen, a little excess weight might help with the flu or the French you learned at school might make all the difference with a job opportunity, organisations have to build their stocks of human and economic capital.

They also have to do this without diminishing the collective stocks of ecological capital upon which they, and the rest of us, ultimately rely.

This inevitably links Social Responsibility with Sustainability. More importantly, it highlights the need for a business culture and language that does not see that which is not of immediate or direct utility as waste.

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