Why Going Green is Good, But Sustainable is Better

By Aaron Nelson, Foundation for a Sustainable Community

ometimes it is hard to know the difference between a fad and a trend. And some trends are small and change how we behave in modest ways while others are quite large and dramatically change how individuals and organizations behave and operate.

"Green" is a mega-trend that is changing forever how organizations and individuals consume energy, utilize resources and dispose of waste. Businesses and non-profits across the globe are discovering there is money to be saved and made by implementing green practices, and these enterprises are scrambling to align with the global greening trend.

Green is Good, but "Sustainable" is Better

Going green is good. It makes business and accounting sense to efficiently use limited and/or expensive resources – to reduce the consumption of electricity and water, to purchase less styrofoam and paper, to put less in the dumpster and more in the recycle bin.

But while green is good, sustainable is better. It is important to be a good environmental steward, but for both businesses and communities to be successful they will have to pay attention to more than just their environment. The successful future of our businesses, our clients and our communities requires a balanced approach – a focus on sustainability,

A few definitions:

First, "green." Green is almost always and exclusively about the environment and protecting it. Green is about energy, waste, water, pollution, transportation choices and resource consumption. Be careful of the related term "greenwashing," which means faking it. Do it, or don’t do it, but don’t fake it.

Now, "sustainable." Sustainable has several definitions. The first formal definition was offered by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development who defined sustainability as "meet[ing] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." 

The most popular and most accepted is also known as the "triple bottom line" definition. Sometimes referred to as the Three Es (Equity, Environment, and Economy) or the Three Ps (People, Planet and Profit), the triple bottom line refers to measuring success based on outcomes in these three areas.

I think the best definition is expressed in the mission of North Carolina’s Foundation for a Sustainable Community: "environmental stewardship, social responsibility and economic prosperity."

The University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School Center for Sustainable Enterprise says a sustainable business is one that "employs profitable strategies that approach social and environmental challenges as business opportunities and minimize negative social and environmental impacts."

Adoption of green and sustainable business practices are being driven by six powerful forces:

1. Capitalism – sustainability has a positive impact on bottom line, organizational branding, reputation and likelihood of long-term financial success;

2. Regulation – reaction to real and anticipated regulation is driving organizations to become more efficient, carbon-aware and community invested;

3. Innovation – from carbon scrubbers and bio-fuels to pervious pavement and
drinking cups made of corn, what was crazy-talk 10 years ago isn’t crazy-talk anymore and new developments are announced weekly;

4. Competition and Peer Pressure – as more companies adopt these practices, there will be more pressure to do so. Wal-Mart’s aspirational sustainability goals and decision to implement sustainability reporting for all 100,000 suppliers will have huge impact; and

5. Global Warming –Nearly all scientists and politicians now agree something is happening, and even those who do not think humans had anything to do with it agree that humans can do something about it.

6. Customer and Employee Demand – the customer cares about the behavior of the company and the sustainability of the products, and employees care, particularly Gens X, Y and Z.

Unlike the green movement, which spent its first 30 years wagging a judging finger at the business community and trying to regulate business behavior, the concept of sustainability is a holistic approach. Sustainability is not only a strategy the business community can buy into but a movement that business should lead.

Sustainability’s triple bottom line of environmental stewardship, social equity and economic prosperity is proving to be a powerful and convening concept. Sustainability focuses on the intersection of interests, the place where neither the social, nor the environmental, nor the economic objectives can be accomplished as well separately as they can be together.

Sustainability is proving to not only be a powerful concept, but a popular one. Here are some results from a late 2009 survey deployed by the Institute for Sustainable Development to 20,000 small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) through Chambers of Commerce in Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

• 87% of respondents said their businesses have a responsibility to protect the natural environment.

• 70% think their businesses gains some or great competitive advantage by being known as "green."

• 94% said they are somewhat interested or very interested in being known as a successful business that is committed
to its community and the environment.

• 70% believe that adopting sustainable business practices will make their organizations more successful in the long run.

• Only 8% are aware of web-based tools to assist them with going green and sustainable.

Business and industry agree something big is happening, and the businesses that choose to lead on this trend are more likely to thrive.

Sustainability is also moving fast in many places around the world. In June 2009, the World Chamber Congress convened 1,000 Chamber of Commerce executives from 100 countries in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a conference on "Leading Sustainable Growth and Change."

The Victoria Australia Chamber of Commerce runs Carbon Down and Grow Me the Money, a $10 million, three-year program at their Chamber that helps small businesses go green and sustainable. The Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce has made sustainability one of their national economic development priorities, created a green small business loan fund, and hosts the national Sustainable Business of the Year Awards.

One of the best programs in North America focused on helping small and mid-sized employers go green and sustainable is Green Plus™ (www.gogreenplus.org). Green Plus™ is managed by the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD), a public-private partnership of chambers, trade associations and universities, including Duke University, UNC Chapel Hill, Elon University and Research Triangle-based Chambers of Commerce.

Green Plus™ is designed to educate, motivate and reward small employers while providing them with affordable, easy-to-use information for improving sustainability performance. Green Plus and ISD won the 2008 Siemens Foundation national award for leadership in sustainable development and the International Economic Development Council’s (IEDC) award for leadership in sustainable economic development.

Green Plus™ is a triple bottom line sustainability program that helps businesses review their environmental stewardship (energy, water, waste, transportation), their social responsibility (family friendly policies, civic participation, corporate responsibility, volunteerism) and economic prosperity (business planning, performance measures, best practices). Green Plus™ participants also gain access to an online network of specialists, peer enterprises and the information support they need in order to make positive changes in their organizations.

Sustainability is not about making due with less; it’s about thriving in a changing business environment. Sustainability is about improving the way that individuals and organizations engage their community and their environment and making them more successful for it.

Sustainability is a prescription for both organizational and community success. Organizations that balance the triple bottom line of sustainability will be rewarded by their customers, employees and community. Today’s customers and employees are demonstrating a greater interest in supporting companies that share their values.

In a national poll of 923 voters conducted by CapStrat and Public Policy Polling - July 6-7, 2009:

• 55% said being green and sustainable was a top priority or an important priority for their employer when making decisions; and

• 83% of voters surveyed said the sustainability of the merchant or service provider was somewhat or very important to them when making purchasing decisions.

Fast Company reported on May 20, 2010 that a survey by OXYGENZ of 3,011 18- to 25-year olds along with 1,300 26- to 35- year olds in the US, EU, India and China found 96% of the younger cohort and 98% of the older cohort "aspire to work in a greener office," and 67% of the 26- to 35-year-olds want their work place to be "environmentally friendly; ie well above regulatory compliance."

Getting Started

So, how do you get started? I recommend taking the following steps (loosely in this order):

1. Form a Team - Start with a core group of three, then expand to include a diverse group of managers and employees. (Be sure to include some doubters. You’ll have to bring them along later anyway.)

2. Get Smart – Seek out and read articles and books on the subject and talk to people who are smarter than you on the subject and better understand the business case for sustainability.

3. Set Goal(s) – Does your organization want to be the best of the best, or to be in the top quartile in your industry or just make modest improvements? Is your goal to save money or to make money or to save the world? Decide, write it down and post it somewhere.

4. Get Buy In – Seek investment and buy in within your organization from above and below.

5. Pick the Low Hanging Fruit (and eat them) – Select a few areas where you can demonstrate measurable results and then execute. Get some early wins.

6. Decide How to Measure and Report – Deliver internal reports first and build to external sharing. Your customers care, your employees care, the community cares, so measure what you are doing and tell them. 

CPAs are poised to lead the way in sustainability. CPAs can and should play a central role in advising their organizations and/or their clients and in setting and helping execute organizational sustainability initiatives.

At the fall meeting of the Council of the AICPA in October 2009, the newly inaugurated AICPA board chair Robert Harris and CEO Barry Melancon both identified sustainability as a key opportunity for CPAs to bring value to the firms or industries they work for and the clients they serve. Chairman Bob Harris stated, "Now is the time to make sustainability a key pillar in your business planning."

CPAs are positioned better than any industry to advise their clients or companies on how enterprises can save money and make money going green and sustainable and how they can measure and track results. Like Harris and Melancon, I encourage CPAs to get involved in the front end by helping develop comprehensive plans, rather than simply measuring the outcomes.

"Green" is big and here to stay. Expanding the notion of "green" to "sustainable," a holistic approach that also includes social and economic objectives, is a far more powerful concept and approach. Business leaders should take the lead, help define the objectives and own the space around sustainability. Sustainability is a successful strategy to build more robust, successful businesses and communities prepared to meet the challenges of the future.

 

Aaron Nelson, IOM, is the president and CEO of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro (NC) Chamber of Commerce, co-founder and senior fellow at the national Institute for Sustainable Development and a Ford Fellow for Regionalism and Sustainable Development. Aaron can be reached at anelson@carolinachamber.org. Learn more on Twitter @GreenPlus and @SustainableSME or visit www.gogreenplus.org..