Chapter 3 Decoding sustainability
Why should businesses try to be “green” or “sustainable”?
Five years ago nobody talked about sustainability. The mindset was still that business and society could continue operating in the ways they have done for the last couple of hundred years. Now, along with globalization, sustainability is a corporate buzzword. But what does it really mean?
Our interviews found that most business leaders remain confused, largely because the definition of sustainability continues to change. For more than a decade there has been increasing pressure on CEOs to take responsibility for their companies’ carbon footprints and to address environmental concerns. A tipping point has been passed and corporations have largely woken up to the need to operate in an environmentally sustainable fashion. Those who haven’t face a decade of growing regulatory pressure, particularly in Europe.
However, there is more to sustainability than going green. Ethical and social considerations are being taken much more seriously by an increasing number of leaders who believe that doing the “right thing” is also great business in the long term. They foresee that stakeholders will push businesses to embrace a role in society that goes beyond the environment. These CEOs are engaged in various activist social forums and signpost the corporate social responsibility agenda for the next ten years. We’ll take you through what they are doing and how to strike a balance between running a successful business and saving the planet, both environmentally and socially.
Extracted from The Secrets of CEOs, © Steve Tappin and Andy Cave, 2008
