INNOVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY:
Two realities that, together or apart, have no way back.
Today I would like to talk about a very powerful topic that is highly discussed at any event, conference, or even social media. I wanted to talk about Sustainability and, of course, also Innovation. Also, I believe we need to understand more about the second (and we’ve already talked a lot about that here) so that we can go a little beyond what is known on the surface of the first. Therefore, today’s post aims to talk about sustainability and how it directly influences the business world.
We can say Innovation is important for companies! I believe we have already discussed and, I believe, we agree with it, right? However, the importance of sustainability as a business issue has grown steadily in recent decades. Most companies understand that their sustained success depends on the economic, social and ecological contexts in which they operate. However, the stability of these contexts can no longer be taken for granted.
However, what is sustainability?
Author Michael Lemonick (2009) says that the word sustainable has a relatively vague meaning and, despite connoting environmental virtue, it has already become a real concept that can be applied to everything, from cars to the automobile industry to agriculture and economy. All this because the concept of sustainability is so simple that it legitimately applies to these areas and many others.
During the United Nations (UN) World Commission on Environment and Development in the first decade of this century, the report “our common future” was published. That report defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Or, in the words of countless kindergarten teachers: “Don’t take more than your share” (Lemonick, 2009).
In his article entitled “The 10 main myths about sustainability”, the author brings not only clear definitions of what sustainability is, but what the main myths about sustainability are, with a list of myths that would certainly leave many “experts” surprised, as shown in the list below:
• Myth 1: Nobody knows what sustainability really means.
• Myth 2: Sustainability is all about the environment.
• Myth 3: “Sustainable” is synonymous with “green”.
• Myth 4: It’s all about recycling.
• Myth 5: Sustainability is very expensive.
• Myth 6: Sustainability means lowering our standard of living.
• Myth 7: Consumer choices and grassroots activism, not government intervention, offer the fastest and most efficient paths to sustainability.
• Myth 8: New technology is always the answer.
• Myth 9: Sustainability is ultimately a population problem.
• Myth 10: Once you understand the concept, living sustainably is very easy to understand (Lemonick, 2009).
Therefore, the author makes it clear that not only sustainability is an important subject and that there are many people with the right to talk about it, but the misunderstanding about sustainability is reduced to those who are not capable or have not made much effort to understand it. However, all these myths are easy to understand and common sense and can separate the “wheat from the chaff.”
Fine! We know a bit more about what sustainability means, I believe even more about what it doesn’t necessarily mean. But how important is it for companies?
The importance of sustainability as a business issue has grown steadily over the last three decades. As previously stated, it is impossible to consider a stable environment for strategic decision-making regarding sustainability. Still, it can be said that the physical environment is becoming more unpredictable, with a more interconnected global economy changing social conditions and technological innovation transforming the nature of consumption and production (González-Benito, 2011).
Christophe Sempels and Jonas Hoffman (2013) argue that sustainable development has proven to be a great source of opportunity and value creation for companies. It is no surprise that we can see many articles, books and conferences on the topic. In this way, it can be said that sustainable development appears to be inseparable from innovation, as well as business performance or the opening of new and even more dynamic markets, especially when considering a passionate segment of consumers (Sempels et al., 2013).
In another article Samuel Fromartz cites at least five different ways in which a company shapes its strategy to take advantage of sustainability as a driver of value creation. A very interesting case presented was that of Nike, which has always associated its brand with cutting-edge design concepts. Therefore, as part of its strategy to reduce the amount of material in its shoes and therefore waste, it redesigned its sports shoe lines to bring sustainability as a central element of its strategic approach (Fromartz, 2009).
In a future post, we will provide greater detail on joint innovation and sustainability practices, as well as more examples of success. What can be said is that such myths about sustainability go far beyond the “tree huggers” and “kindergarten teachers” who influence the new generation. However, we are talking about a movement that is here to stay: concern for the sustainability of the planet. Therefore, imagining more and more sustainable initiatives within organizations, mainly going beyond what has been mandatory and regulated for their operation for a long time, is no longer something out of the ordinary…
On the contrary!! A whole chain of practitioners of corporate sustainable initiatives was developed and, I dare say, we are no longer in the first generation of these practitioners. These practices are motivated by behavioral change in society. Therefore, terms such as ESG, which aims to look at organizational processes based on three aspects: Environment, Sustainability and Governance, have become so familiar in the daily lives of professionals and market leaders.
Our next post will discuss a bit more about ESG as an innovation practice and, mainly, the power of society (especially the consumer) to change the direction of production and delivery of products and services in the world’s main organizations. I hope I managed to escape the “commonplace” a little when it comes to the basics of sustainability with the information presented here and, of course, I will cover this subject in more depth on another occasion.
REFERENCES
- Lemonick, Michael D. Top 10 Myths About Sustainability. Scientific Ameican Earth 3.0. 2009, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
- González-Benito, J., Lannelongue, G. & Queiruga, D. (2011) Stakeholders and environmental management systems: a synergistic influence on environmental imbalance. Journal of Cleaner Production 19, p. 1622–1630.
- Sempels, C., Hoffmann, J. (2013). Tackling Sustainable Development at the Corporate Strategic Level to Create Value. In: Sustainable Innovation Strategy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137352613_2.
