Why some companies are keeping quiet about sustainability
The companies who are keeping quiet about sustainability fall into two categories: the ones who know what they are doing, and the ones who don’t. Denial ain’t a river in Egypt, as they say in Cairo. Our oceans are dying, our air changing, and our forests and grasslands turning to deserts. From fish and plants to wildlife to human beings, we are killing the planet that sustains us, and fast.
But telling this to business people is like showing a smoker a slice of a cancer infected lung. It just doesn’t work. No matter how eco-conscious the person is- the catastrophe scenario is just too much to take on, emotionally, and viably. And quite frankly- isn’t it up to our governments and politicians to sort out this mess? The UN treaty on climate change — our best hope for action — expires next year. As it looks like, the US corporate-nation-democracy will not take the lead – leaving every other nation on the fence? We suspect not. But let’s stick to business for now.
Forward looking companies realize that drastic change in legislation is inevitable, and are already quietly working towards a 2015 change in legislation that will exceed any CSR law being mentioned today. Far beyond the blanket calls for lower carbon emissions and the carbon payoffs, a cradle to grave product life-cycle responsibility is almost certain to put many successful companies today exactly there: in the cradle if not the grave.
Global brands that are high risk by nature need to be vocal about their eco-commitment, but there are a host of other companies out there who are quite honestly just keeping quiet about their sustainability activities- and waiting for their competition to be knocked out of the water.
By preparing today for tomorrow’s blanket change- they are not only ensuring their business success out of their core offering, but also planting some nice little earners on being sustainability experts in the future- with new sustainability products spilling over from their up and down stream manufacturing processes- and new services to end consumers and partners in their value chain for keeping it green before and after product purchases.
No wonder they are keeping quiet. But it is our responsibility as consultants to help make the case internally at less innovative client companies – for reducing environmental impacts today, AND moving towards to tomorrow’s cyclical business model that these successful brands are already implementing.
It’s an easy task to speculate which companies should be looking into this: just asking the right questions is enough. Are you perhaps a successful global brand leading in your category? Are you making significant growth on your old model of shifting stuff? But is this growth confined to BRIC countries, and not Europe and other so-called “mature” markets? Consultants have been warning of this for some years now- the pendulum has swung. If it sounds familiar it’s because it is. If the first wave was “dot com” & “The Internet washes whiter” — the new wave is “true green”.
As Canadian Business Strategist Don Tapscott put it about the “new” Internet economy back in 2002: “If you are wondering when things are going to get back to normal in business, get over it. This is the new normal.” Forget the “new economy,” he says. “No sector, even technology, can equal the economy as a whole. We still have capitalism; we still have private ownership and all the other traits of the “old economy.” The crash of the dot coms doesn’t mean the Internet is not important –it is more influential than ever.”
Add constrained resources to an ever-evolving global network society and his words ring truer than ever: “There is a fundamental change taking place in terms of how corporations create value and arguably, in terms of the core architecture of the corporation. I think it’s the biggest change in a century in the ways that companies build relationships and interact with other entities, institutions in the economy and in society and arguably, the nature of the corporation itself.”
What consultants must do is raise the bar. For ourselves, and for our clients. A straight forward return-on-investment of current CSR sustainability measures is only half the case study. There are far more compelling reasons for businesses to “go the whole hog.” And to do this we need an awful lot of collaboration.
Companies that have already made the commitment to sustainability as part of their core business model have reaped unforeseen benefits that emerged from their process. Opportunities for great publicity and raise in stock value have been proven, but while we still have hyper-capitalism, as Tapscott emphasizes, there is money to be made, up and downstream- and above and below the dirty carpet, when a company is willing to look and be willing to serve – or put out the fire!