Benefits of pursuing sustainability

Here are some of the benefits you should expect, based on the experience of other businesses and communities that have embraced sustainability.

Reduce energy, waste and costs. Some organizations have already achieved the goal of zero waste to landfill. Nothing is wasted. Toyota, for example, has reportedly achieved zero waste to landfill targets across all European manufacturing plants in 2006.

These organizations are able to eliminate haulage costs and also get paid for the ‘residual products’ (formerly known as waste). It’s hard to believe, but we still have a long way to go on energy efficiency. A prison in Oregon has reduced its natural gas bills by about 65 per cent by preheating water with solar (thermal) energy before putting it in the boilers. Banking giant HSBC has tracked the climate change index back to 2004 and says it would have outperformed the MSCI World Index by about 70 per cent, lending credence to financial benefits of attending to climate change.

Differentiate yourself

Companies and communities are always looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Sustainability, at least until it becomes standard practice, can provide a way of making your organization stand out. For example, OZOCar in New York City was the first all-hybrid hired-car service. But they didn’t stop with just being green. They offer Sirius satellite radio, Wi-Fi access, and a spare Mac laptop in seat pocket. Its hip image has it growing at a rate of 13 per cent per week and it was profitable 18 months after starting up.

Sidestep future regulations

Regulations are constantly changing. For those who want to get ahead of the curve, sustainability provides a useful framework for understanding the ‘endgame’. In some cases, you may be able to avoid them all together. For example, progressive dry cleaners that invested in more eco-friendly processes were unaffected by the new phasing out of perchloroethylene, the common cancer-causing solvent used in traditional dry cleaning. In other situations, you can at least have advanced warning. For example, according to a McKinsey study released in 2008, 80 per cent of executives expect climate change-related regulations within five years and one-third expect it to come in just the next two years. Those who saw the trend early had more time to phase in improvements.

Create innovative new products or processes

By helping you to see the world’s present and future challenges, sustainability can help you develop new products or processes that can be part of the solution. By focusing its funding on sustainability projects, Shore Bank Pacific, a small financial institution in Ilwaco, Washington, has attracted deposits from across the nation. Toyota developed its hybrid technology and is now selling it to other manufacturers. The Aravind Eye Clinic in Madurai, India invented a new intraocular lens to help cataract patients at a fraction of the cost of those they could import; now they export them.

Open new markets

Most companies focus on serving those in industrialized nations, less than one-sixth of the world’s population. Believe it or not, you can make a handy profit serving even the most destitute 3 billion people, if you have a product they want at a price they can afford. Amul, a dairy cooperative in India, discovered they could sell ice cream to the poor in India if they could get the cost down to around a rupee a scoop. Since most of the cost is in refrigeration, they developed a much cheaper way to keep the product cold. This new process opens up a gigantic marketplace and has uncovered a radically cheaper refrigeration process that could be used in other venues, providing them with a competitive advantage.

Attract and retain the best employees

Many of today’s employees want to work for companies that share their values. A recent poll on green employment by MonsterTRAK.com found that 80 per cent of young professionals were interested in getting a job where they could have a positive impact on the environment and 92 per cent would be more inclined to work for a company that was known as environmentally friendly.6 Sustainability can help infuse even mundane jobs with meaning.

Hot Lips Pizza, a small restaurant chain in Portland, Oregon, found that pursuing sustainability helped them attract a much higher quality employee because the mission made the work seem more meaningful. Sustainability can unleash a sense of passion not possible with most other organizational change efforts.

Even burger-flippers at Swedish McDonald’s can feel as if they are changing the world by serving organic dairy products and beef. Sustainability, because it includes both environmental and socio-economic issues, is broad enough to encompass most people’s concerns, whether they are the future of the rainforest or the future of schools. When employees feel as if their work is a means to solving major societal issues of concern to them, you tap into a powerful source of commitment and loyalty. Improve your image with shareholders and the public.

Sustainability can put organizations on the leading edge of an exciting and socially responsible trend. This can help the largest corporations, who are often targeted by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), build goodwill with the public. But it can also help tiny organizations get recognition. Gerding/Edlen, a developer in the northwest US, has received national recognition in trade journals and on a Public Broadcasting TV show. ‘We couldn’t have bought this type of PR,’ the owners say.

Reduce legal risk and insurance costs

In order to manage risk, organizations must keep an eye on social and environmental practices. Sustainability can help organizations radically reduce those risks and the overhead costs that go with them. The former OKI Semiconductor plant in Oregon discovered that, by eliminating certain toxic chemicals, their insurance company could offer them a lower rate. Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurers, has told clients who are significant emitters of greenhouse gases that they may deny coverage if they do not have a plan in place to manage their climate risks, so for some it may not be a matter of saving on insurance costs but instead of maintaining coverage.

Provide a higher quality of life

Sustainability helps communities make decisions that maximize the quality of life through ‘smart growth’ design principles. Curitiba, Brazil, for example, combined insights in urban planning, transportation and social programmes to provide a much better quality of life for all their citizens, rich and poor. Their public transportation system is so convenient and well used that it requires no government subsidy. The whole city is designed for people, not cars, reducing air pollution while enhancing the quality of life.