How To Make Companies More Sustainable?

In the past year alone, sales of consumer goods from brands with a demonstrated commitment to sustainability have grown more than 4% globally, while those without grew less than 1%. Sixty-six percent of consumers say they are willing to pay more for sustainable brands—up from 55% in 2014 and 50% in 2013.1

The numbers show how consumers today are looking for products that are good for them as well as society. But we need a transformation in the mindset of every stakeholder in the value chain—brands, consumers, and decision-makers—for an integrated sustainable future.

- Morgen Witzel

Sustainability is one of the most difficult and troubling—but at the same time most important—concepts in business today. On the one hand, the word ‘sustainability’ has been so grossly overused and misused that many, including some proponents of sustainable management and development, are now shying away from it; to them, ‘sustainability’ has joined other degraded concepts such as ‘corporate social responsibility’ and ‘human resources’ in the scrap-bin of management jargon. Others argue that even if the term is overused, the principles behind it are important and need to be examined and discussed, and put into practice.

It is nearly twenty years since the Brundtland Commission’s report on sustainable development first brought the issue of sustainability to center stage, and about the same length of time since John Elkington’s Cannibals with Forks introduced us to the concept of the triple bottom line. Since then, reams of print and terabytes of web space have been devoted to both. There has been much talk about introducing sustainability into business and management practice.