When we talk about corporate sustainability we mean the duty that every company has to look at its  environmental, social and economic impacts and to improve wherever it’s necessary. Consumers have high expecations these days. They’re happy to research a company’s social and environmental commitments and will reject any that don’t meet the mark. Millennials – the first generation of digital natives – just ‘ditch and switch’ brands and services if they’re not happy.  This is why it’s essential for companies to be seen to respond to the increased demand for societal and environmental responsibility.  The larger and more profitable your company the more scrutiny you’re under. You need to set an example to win brand loyalty.

What is a sustainable business?

It’s not easy to categorically state that a company has achieved sustainability. In 1994, John Elkington came up with 3 P’s that business and marketing experts tend to still rely on as a measure:

• Planet, the environmental dimension
• People, the social dimension
• Profit, the economic-financial dimension

 If you analyse the areas of synergy and union between these three concepts, you can start to assess how sustainable your company is – there’s always a balance to be struck between the three. Sounding complex? Don’t worry – here’s a 5-step guide from Positive Planet to help you

Five steps to becoming a more sustainable business

Here’s how you can join the sustainability revolution and innovate to create a brighter future for us and our planet: 

1. Believe in your Brand: it sounds obvious, but if you don’t believe in your brand and its commitment to sustainability, how can you expect your audience to get on board? Prepare a detailed plan on how to make your company more sustainable, and stick to it. When your audience sees your dedication to sustainability, they’ll respond naturally with more loyalty. Customers will identify more with your brand when they believe you share their ideals.
   
   

    

2. Reuse and recycle: recycling is a must for any business. Start with recycling paper and ink cartridges, but what about furnishing your office with vintage or used furniture? Do your staff use reusable water bottles? Have you banned disposable plastic cutlery? Have you replaced fluorescent tubes with LED lighting? Always ask yourself how your brand is promoting sustainability and what recyclable materials you’re using in your manufacturing process. It’s all food for thought, and with a little planning, you can make sure your business produces almost zero waste.
   
   

    

3. Working remotely: when employees commute to work each day, the way they travel leaves a substantial environmental footprint. You can help reduce the carbon output generated by that daily commute by offering your employees the option to work at home. We’ve now got the technology to make this a reality, and the global pandemic forced our hands, so why not leverage it long term for the good of our planet?
   
   

    

4. Set deadlines and goals: sustainability must become an integral part of your business. But that means evolving. Set goals to achieve and when you do achieve them, set more. Corporate sustainablity is a process not not an end game and there’s always room for improvement. The secret is how to embrace new initiatives that dial up your engagement without reducing profitability. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
   
   

    

5. Measure, Offset and Reduce your business carbon emissions. Getting an understanding of your business carbon emissions by calculating your carbon footprint is a great way to understand how you can reduce your business carbon footprint. Once you understand what business activities are contributing to the highest carbon emissions you can work on a plan to reduce your carbon footprint. Most businesses struggle to reduce all their carbon emissions which is where offsetting can help you to become a carbon neutral business. 

These first 5 steps will start you off on your journey to corporate sustainability. It’s not as hard as it sounds: small actions and decisions can reap great rewards for staff and customer loyalty and of course for the environment!

“Without solid foundations you’ll struggle to create anything of lasting value”

Many of us are familiar with the story, from the Bible, of the two men who built houses. One built his house upon a rock and another who built his house upon sand. The house built upon a rock weathered the storm, and the builder was called wise; but the house built on the sand collapsed during the storm, and the builder was called foolish.

The meaning of this parable is quite obvious: proper foundations are necessary. With a literal house, it is unwise to build on sand, because the foundation will be unsteady and the house will eventually suffer some kind of damage. This will waste resources, and all the time and work put into building the house in the first place will have gone for nothing. In contrast, it is wise to build one’s house on a sure foundation; anchoring to bedrock makes a building withstand the test.

And so it is the same in business. Oftentimes we get so excited about starting our business that we fail to put the proper foundations in place, and the result I come across time and time again is that whilst the business is prospering there is little or no negative impact, but when the tide turns and the storm comes in, orders dry up and cash flow is tight, then the unsteady foundations of the business start cracking and in many cases the business doesn’t weather the storm.  It’s so sad to see this as some well thought out structured planning at the outset could have prevented this and ensured the business would survive and thrive.

Many of you will be familiar with how I like to relate everything in business to nature and the natural world and the foundations of your business are no different.  There are five natural elements found in nature and they each represent a different season of the year and provide a different business focus which is critical to creating the foundations of your business.  These elements and their seasonality provide us with a foundational blueprint of how to run our businesses by keeping our people, teams and processes in flow.  Each element is inter-dependent on each other and this is why we must have all these five elements aligned if we are to create solid cornerstones for our business.  This can be clearly seen in the diagram below of the Five Element Business Focus Model.

Water Energy (Mission):
Water energy has a duality in that it can be fast flowing  and powerful or still and peaceful. The water element is associated with the season of winter and is always asking us the question Why?  The key business foundation that the water element seeks us to get clarity on is why we are in business. What is the business mission and what is the real purpose of the business. For every business it is essential to have clarity of the mission and why you are in business, as this is the fuel that keeps you going when the going gets tough.  Today more than ever customers are seeking to do business with purposeful organisations. Companies that know why they are in business and the real impact they want to make in the world.  And interestingly for all these companies it is not profits, although interesting all the research shows that companies that focus on their purpose and impact actually generate 10 times more profit than companies that just focus on this metric.

Wood Energy (Merchandise):
Wood energy is associated with Spring which is a time of new beginnings. It is the season in which we ask What are we doing. In business this relates to what merchandise will be selling, what innovation and products and services will we be offering.  It is essential that every business has clarity on what they are offering, because without this clarity the customer doesn’t know what they can buy and so can’t make a purchasing decision.  In my experience at the outset keep things simple and just focus on a few key products and services. Get known for delivering these well and then you can expand your product offering. All too often I come across companies with a plethora of diverse merchandise and this just confuses the customer.

Fire Energy (Magnetise):
Fire energy is associated with summer when there is lots of movement and connection. In business the fire element relates to Magnetise and who are the clients you are seeking to attract.  Knowing who you want to serve is a key cornerstone of any business and one that often gets overlooked. All too often new business owners want to serve everyone and in the process serve no-one. Getting clarity on your ideal client and niche is of paramount importance in creating a sustainable business. The other advantage of being niched and serving a specific target audience is that you can more easily position yourself as an expert and so command higher fees. Simply by niching you distinguish yourself from the crowds and so avoid your products and services becoming commoditised and therefore competing on pricing with others.

Earth Energy (Monetise):
Earth energy is associated with late summer, a time of slowing down and also of expert timing, of knowing how long to leave the crops until they need harvesting.  The earth element is always asking the questions when and where and in business this translates to knowing how to monetise our products and services.  Where and when should we be selling and at what price.  These are key business decisions that can impact the business success and which we must be continually striving to master.  Discount a product too early and we lose valuable income, whilst leaving a discount running too long also has the same effect. The challenge here is to learn how to master the art of distribution so that you maximise the return on your assets.

Metal Energy (Mechanise):
Associated with autumn metal energy is super efficient and effective. It is always asking the question How can we make things more effective.  How can we change our procedures to get a better result?. How can we Mechanise operations so they are as streamlined as possible, and so they can be automated.  How can we organise things and what systems and metrics do we need in place to monitor performance?.  Implementing systems is oftentimes the area that many business owners overlook – after all it is not the most sexy of activities – and yet time and time again systems can save the business time and money when created in a structured and well thought out manner.

Each of these energies and its corresponding “M” activity are key cornerstones to ensure the success of any business. Just like in nature, these cornerstones need to be aligned to keep the business in harmony and when one or more of these cornerstones is missing this is when poor performance and trouble can occur.  Just like the house built on the sand when these cornerstones of Mission, Merchandise, Magnetise, Monetise and Mechanise are out of balance then when stormy conditions arrive the business is more likely to implode.

Most of today’s leaders got the memo: building a purpose-culture isn’t only good business – it’s necessary to attract younger talent and thrive in the future. While many companies attempt to create a more purpose-driven culture, most of them fail. After working with organisations from one to 100.000 people on five continents, here are ten fundamental elements for making a purpose-culture work.

1. A purpose-culture needs more than a purpose

To make a purpose-culture stick, it requires both a purpose and a strong, values-driven culture. Look at Uber’s Founder, Travis Kalanick, who destructed the success of reaching his purpose with his own misconduct as a CEO. Consider the purpose as the game you’re playing, and the culture as the rules of the game. It’s impossible to play a game without agreement around the rules. A strong culture ensures that the company stays on track with its purpose and doesn’t cut corners when ego gets involved or the going gets tough.

2. Reach for the stars

If you want to access the emotional power of purpose, your company’s purpose must create a higher purpose that reaches beyond the benefit of your organisation. A higher purpose must first-and foremost serve society, the community, or the environment. Patagonia’s purpose statement includes “…to use business to solve the environmental crisis”. Even the toughest business decisions are driven by this purpose, such as their choice to move all of their cotton products to organic cotton at a time where organic cotton wasn’t available in quantities that Patagonia needed. If employees or customers sense that a purpose is only created in an attempt to improve business results, the company becomes inauthentic. The purpose won’t stick.

3. Avoid purpose washing

Without doubt, building a purpose-culture has become a trend. We speak with many leaders wanting to follow the trend without knowing the commitment a purpose-culture requires. If you choose to build a purpose-culture, you must go all the way. Establishing a purpose-driven business only to attract talent, drive business results, or continue business-as-usual often backfires, yielding the company’s leadership less trustworthy. As you establish an authentic purpose-culture, your business results cannot take precedence over your purpose, anymore. If they do, your stakeholders will feel that you’re just using your purpose to drive results, and they’ll disengage. This implies that ultimately you must become a social impact business: an organisation whose primary purpose is to make a social impact. By now, you probably get a sense why so few companies are able to succeed.

4. Involve everyone

To make a purpose-culture stick, a company needs buy-in from across the organisation. Involve everyone, especially in building the culture. If people aren’t involved, they don’t take ownership. Create the rules of the game together with your team and use them as guide posts that keep everyone on track in pursuit of your purpose.

5. Change your consciousness – not your business

In a business world that has for decades, if not centuries, been driven by financial results, the notion that a social impact business can ultimately yield the same or better results is a stretch for many. Building a purpose-culture is not a process change – it requires a fundamental change in consciousness. A purpose-driven culture cannot be authentic and sustainable with the traditional, profit and goals-driven mindset.

6. A successful purpose culture starts with you

Since building a purpose-driven culture requires a different mindset how to run an organisation, it starts with you. To succeed in building a purpose-driven business, have to graduate from being a manager – someone who effectively handles people and circumstances – to being a leader – someone who’s able to lead the way, even in adverse circumstances. A leader has to first become clear about her own purpose and values, and whether she’s willing to take a stand for it in challenging situations. Get ready, yourself, before asking others to step up.

7. From puddles to oceans

Especially in larger organisations, establishing a purpose-driven culture is tricky. Many top leaders aren’t ready to make the necessary change, because they’ve succeeded in a traditional paradigm – and for them, it would be far too risky to change. To engrain a purpose-culture in larger organisations, build puddles of purpose-cultures across the organization. As these puddles grow and ultimately merge, they become a larger, more powerful body of influence. Eventually, the system can tip.

8. Let your goals serve your purpose

Traditional businesses run on goals. Set by the top, they’re enacted by managers and monitored by controlling divisions. This structure cannot coexist with a purpose-driven culture: a mandate to increase sales by 20%, for example, while at the same time pursuing a higher purpose requires managers and employees to make a choice. If an organization leads with goals, the purpose-driven culture usually moves to the back-burner. To keep the power of setting goals at your disposal, make them subordinate to your purpose. Define goals that serve your purpose.

9. Connect your people with the impact

To boost your purpose-culture, let your people experience first hand the impact they’re making in the world. If your purpose is to have a positive impact on the environment, offer your employees an opportunity to get engaged on the ground. If your purpose is to improve the health and well-being of people, let them connect with the individuals your company has impacted. This doesn’t only make your company’s purpose more tangible; it provides your employees with a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction that they wouldn’t get by sitting in the office.

10. You don’t have a choice

After reading the above, your enthusiasm for building a purpose-driven business might be dampened, possibly even extinguished. If that’s the case, be thankful. If you indeed choose to build a purpose driven culture, you want to be ready to go all the way. I do not recommend for anyone to stumble into initiating such a profound transformation in their organisation. So, before pulling the trigger, make a conscious choice to be all-in. Know what’s in front of you.