BUSINESS & The “Profit and Planet” Question

Forward looking businesses are now considering the “profit and planet” question – the essence of business sustainability:

How, profitably, to satisfy the needs and aspirations of customers, consumers and shareholders today – in ways which maintain our planet’s resources and stability systems – to secure a continuing basis for business opportunity and general prosperity tomorrow.
^{© 2006-2007 Richard Poynton}

Typically, the initial response of an alert business is to consider one, or more of the following questions:

In practical terms, what is required?

SHORT ANSWER: A radical design change to remake our products and services and crucially, the systems by which they are produced and supplied. The initial aim is to make all our value-adding activities net zero in their carbon emissions and wastes. The ultimate aim is to make our systems positively restorative of our planet’s resources and regenerative systems.

To achieve net zero outputs of pollution and wastes, first requires a shift in our concept of business “development”. A shift away from the view that business “development” must = MORE, i.e. quantity, to a “smarter” concept in which “development” = BETTER, i.e. quality – fit for human needs and fit for our planet as well. Given this shift in intent, we can then redesign our products, services and their provision systems, to optimise the use of all materials and utilities.

To become positively restorative of our planet’s resources and regenerative systems, means further steps in “development” = BETTER. The development goals here, are products, services and provision systems, which, as they operate, clean the air, land and water and quarantine any toxic residues. The intended outcome is that as our businesses operate, our environment becomes cleaner, not dirtier, a reversal of our current, unsustainable, “business as usual” model.

MORE:

Where have these new business challenges come from?
Why are these new challenges mainstream business issues?
Can the resolution of these challenges generate business opportunities?