Increasingly, research suggests consumers are placing a heavier weight on ethical brand behaviour and sustainability. Dr Josie McLean, sustainability expert from The Partnership, looks at how businesses can keep up with this global values shift.
There seem to be many moving tectonic plates within our society, including #metoo, the rise of populism, and the decline of trust in our governments and major institutions (e.g., banks). But there is one issue that should stand head and shoulders above the rest, vying for your attention. That issue is our global un-sustainability, of which climate change is a part.
The Australia Institute's Climate of the Nation report released in September 2019 found that "81% of Australians are concerned that climate change will result in more droughts and flooding (up from 78% in 2018)" and these findings were supported by ABC's Australia Talks National Survey that found that 89% of Australians are concerned about water supplies.
Ten years ago, while undertaking some climate change related research, I was told “We’re happy to talk about change, just take the climate bit away from the front of the phrase!” Now we are viewing farmers on social media and TV who are asking for government policy to support them to cope with long-term impacts of climate change.
My point is that the farmers' shift is an indicator of a broader, mainstream movement of citizens, not consumers, who are placing a heavier weight on clean water and food and life than profit. (Research also shows that 72% of shoppers rank ethical brand behavior among their top three priorities.) If you do not reflect this values shift you may find your social licence is withdrawn.
Many view business sustainability as incorporating environmental concerns into marketing, or maybe supporting the local community with donations to do some good. Maybe you are exhibiting these corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions and think its enough. However, it’s not enough because it displays a lack of understanding of the term sustainability and it does not match the values shift described above.
Sustainability is a natural pursuit of all living systems. When a living system is successful, it thrives and is in a sustainable state. But no living system is an island – they are all joined up and the success of one subsystem contributes to the success of the broader ecosystem. Each sustains the other.
Sustaining may be a better word than sustainable because it describes an interconnected and evolving state than emerges through the relationships between different parts of the system.
Applying this concept of sustaining to you and your business, raises three questions to guide your business development that will generate the values matching transformation.
1. How does your product or service contribute to society?
Some producers of products as diverse as cigarettes, plastic straws, and thermal coal are discovering that society will withdraw its 'social licence' to produce, if the product is found to contribute negatively. If your company is producing plastic gadgets - be warned!
2. Within the system, 'who depends upon you and who do you depend upon'?
This question focusses your attention on how fuzzy the edges of your business are. For example, if you are sourcing parts from low-cost suppliers, be aware that those low prices may come back to haunt you. They often reflect poor environmental impacts, safety, or working conditions. Will your business stand up to the scrutiny of your customers if they discover such facts? Society's values are moving and reprioritizing.
3. Within your business, how do you engage your people to grow their creative birthright?
Many companies think that their sustainability efforts only have implications outside the doors of their organization. Not so. If you want your enterprise to contribute to a better world, then you also need to nurture an organizational culture in which employees are able to contribute the full extent of their creative talents to fuel innovation. When form human environments that nurture and sustain people within organizations, we enable them to sustain larger parts of the system, including your business, the communities in which you operate, and the natural environment upon which we all depend for life.
You know more about the transformation to form a sustaining business than you might think. That is because you are a living system. You know in your heart what is required. Look at the children in your extended family and ask yourself “what am I being asked to do?”
Most of all, what is required is to unlearn the 'hard-nosed' business school lessons that taught us ways of running businesses that placed profits before all else.
Profits are essential in operating a sustaining business - but they are not the only measure of success. The more genuine indicator of success maybe the pride your employees feel as they serve your customers and responsibly meet their real needs.
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