There is a lot of confusion pertaining to Sustainability because it suffers from a) too many definitions and very broad scope of work, b) a wide variety of approaches and methodologies and c) lack of specific processes that one can use to describe its roll out and management on ongoing basis(similar to Just-In-Time and Lean Six-Sigma). These conditions result in having many Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) being hesitant into assigning an executive to be in charge of a Sustainability organization, allocating an organization and a budget to implement and perform the planned Sustainability-related programs and activities, and to make real progress in this arena. We’ve seen SMEs treating Sustainability as another program for the Environmental Health & Safety department (which usually consists of one professional), or assign it to the marketing department with the hope that they can “greenwash” everything and label it a green initiative.
All those approaches have limited success and they do not really benefit the company, its employees and other stakeholders, the community or the environment. In order for a company to implement and achieve the full benefit of Sustainability one must have a crisp understanding of what it is, what it does, and how it benefits all. Sustainability is more than another business initiative dreamt up by the large corporations, and it is certainly not a business fad. Sustainability is:
- A Strategic Lever or Enabler, similar to Lean Six-Sigma (LSS). As a matter of fact, a lot of smart enterprises of all sizes are integrating LSS with Sustainability, making Lean and Green the most powerful Strategic Enabler to hit the business world in the last several decades. Sustainability greatly affects strategies, business models, value and supply chains, product designs, supplier relationships, partnerships, business structure, and (business and technical) infrastructures. In other words, it affects everything. Some enterprises are using Sustainability as the main vehicle for enterprise transformation and the main force to reach the next plateau of excellence.
- A new culture and a new mentality that permeates all aspects of the business world and personal life. This is the main reason why we chose to call it Life Sustainability — because it affects all aspects of life … from home to the workplace. Sustainability applies everywhere. We urge business owners, executives, managers and all employees to apply the concepts and principles of Sustainability at home, at their place of worship, at school, and wherever else they participate. To behave and act differently at home and workplace is a form of schizophrenia.
- A new way of life and a new era. Society very quietly, inauspiciously and fatefully has entered The Age Of Limits, which forces governments, businesses, and people around the world to take a different approach in creating, developing, producing, using and disposing products. But it is a lot more than that. It is also about respecting the environment, becoming “one” with nature, learning to be a global “citizen” that knows how to collaborate, synergize and srtsf Sustainability introduces a spiritual dimension into the business world that was missing or was suppressed all this time. The Triple Bottom Line (3BL) is a manifestation of that. One does not adapt 3BL in order to be compliant with government regulations, receptive to society’s pressures, and responsive to stockholder expectations. One pursues 3BL for the sake of having a better company, building a better world and safeguarding the future for all humanity. One will be very hard pressed to find a more noble cause than this! Welcome to the Era of Sustainability!
Sustainability must not be treated as a cost to be contained, but as an investment to a brighter future, that has a great return/payback. Our company is here to assist you in understanding in a very profound way all the aspects of Sustainability, and offer the right support to your management team to properly plan for it, create the right sustainable vision, programs, initiatives and changes in your organization in order to take full advantage of the greatest strategic lever available to you. More importantly, we will help you identify and quantify the benefits that will be realized once Sustainability is in place. Some people mistakenly equate Sustainability to survivability, when in reality it is a Growth Strategy that promotes innovation, creativity, holistic and outside-the-box thinking that changes everything. Applying Sustainability the right way, will catapult your company ahead of numerous others that treat it as a compliance mechanism to get the government of their backs.
This diagram is just a high level synopsis of what our involvement is all about:
