Gunnar Collin

So many things one should do and so many things one should not do.
Is it really that important to be sustainable and will it affect me and my business at all? Why cannot things be as they were?

During the last year I have had the chance to go deeper into the subject, and it is fascinating, indeed. Being very skeptic to begin with, I have come to the conclusion that being sustainable is good, first all for my wallet, but also for my business. I have also realized that we have now come to the crossroads when all companies have to decide: am I good or am I evil? Simple as that! OK, so having made the decision what does it entail? Well first of all if you make no decisions or take the evil route, the rest of us will wish you good luck in hell but if you choose to be good you have chosen the route of change and the route of no return.

Trying to put the buzz words corporate sustainability into some form of context I came across a paper from Harvard Business Review, according to the paper becoming sustainable is about development and innovation i.e. sustainability is business and it is not something you deal with in parallel to your normal or traditional activities, it has to be integrated in everything you do. This approach is interesting as it takes off some of the pressure and bad conscious around the subject; it is just to embrace it and incorporate it into your normal business activities.

According to the paper there are five stages on the road to corporate sustainability, the first is to see compliance as an opportunity and not as a threat. If you think about it is evident that the companies that have taken this approach have been very successful. The secret is to accept the new imposed standards and make them the global standards, thus meeting compliance requirements everywhere and not having to deal with separate standards in different markets and jurisdiction. For us working in a global environment this makes perfectly sense and is also a relief as we do not need to get upset with regulatory bodies anymore.

The second step is to look at your own footprint, which will have two effects, first of all you will become better yourself, of course, but you also have to address the ones around you in the supply chain. What this actually implies is that when you get going you force your customers, suppliers and stakeholders to get going as well. It becomes even more interesting in the context of global trade. What does your footprint look like, your suppliers and your freight forwarders? Do you put any pressure on those around you? Do they put any demands on you? What do your customers want? Has your bank any requirements on you? Just like the compliance stage you can try to adapt to requirements around you or you can make this part of your strategy or development. In most cases, enhancing your supply chain is an excellent business case, mainly as a result of a lower energy and raw materials bill but also because you get more motivated staff, better reputation and a healthier planet.

The third stage is all about realizing that this is an area of real business opportunities and therefore design and innovate real sustainable products and services. This is more and more becoming a fact and almost all industries are now offering sustainable alternatives on its own commercial merits.

The fourth step is to take this one step further and it is about building your whole business model on sustainability or at least a whole business line. This is also becoming a reality but is not as evident; nevertheless, you have some good and well known examples of sustainable business lines like GE or Electrolux.

The fifth and final step has to do with ‘the system’. We are not there yet but if you think about it, today’s capitalistic system does not consider the fact that we need a couple of globes to sustain our current way of living. Why would it not be possible to have a system that is actually in itself not wasting our non renewable resources? We have to change our current mindset and really get into innovative thinking if we want a new system. An example of this thinking is our current electricity distribution system. It easy to get electricity out of it but it is hard to put electricity into it which means that a lot of energy that is generated cannot be utilized. How did we think? Not very smart, take a look at and compare with the internet.

So what does this mean? For me it means that:
-There is no way back
-We have to embrace the changes and look at them as opportunities and,
-We should all use our brains to enhance the ‘system’ so we do not have to choose between good or bad. It should all come natural.