What Does It Mean To Be Sustainable in Business?

And how to understand it better.

Photo by Boxed Water Is Better on Unsplash

Because being sustainable is a hot topic right now, for obvious reasons, there are a lot of companies out there scrambling for words when asked, “What it means to be sustainable to your business?”

“Well, um… We pledge a donation every month to non-profit organizations that plant trees around the world.”

or

“We are currently working on reducing waste by changing our label package to include 40% more recyclable materials!”

Isn’t that swell?

They’re doing something, that’s for sure, but is this what being sustainable means?

Btw, some of these forestation techniques are damaging their respective ecosystems due to planting only monocultures. But that’s a topic for another day.

I’m sure all you know by now how a recycling logo looks. It’s been circling on packages of many, many brands.

If you don’t, or can’t remember as it’s a little logo on the back, here’s how it looks in all its glory:

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

It’s a great representation of what recycling means and what sustainability should mean to businesses and companies alike.

Huh, can you please expand on that?

Photo by Karl Ibri on Unsplash

It shows the circular path every product should take. As in nature, where everything is connected in a circular loop, maintaining a delicate equilibrium.

Animals eat berries, they poop; in turn, they spread seeds and fertilize the soil, making the berries regrow. And this cycle repeats, again and again.

Very efficient, right?

I’m sure you can think of many other splendid examples of sustainability in nature. Why is that, you wonder? Because nature is sustainable by design.

Now, let’s see how this circular path goes for products made of plastic:

You buy a cup (it might be made of paper, you never know). In it, there’s a rather innocuous-looking plastic straw. You drink through your straw (ah, brain freeze!) and throw it in the trash looking like the one I showed you. This goes into a dump or landfill and… that’s it.

The very next day, the cycle repeats with the same results: You use something once and throw it afterward.

Imagine if everything was single-use in nature?

Scratch that, imagine if anything is single-use in nature? It wouldn’t last long now, would it?

Companies need to change the way they treat each product. They need to understand that sustainability means caring for your product long after it was successfully marketed and sold to a consumer.

Because of the inevitable damage, it will cause by pilling up somewhere in the world.

Every sustainable business has to account for and accurately reflect the total life cycle cost of each product, from its birth to its recycled conclusion. Thus creating a positive loop that minimizes our impact on the environment.

This is the true cost of sustainable business.

It’s not about using the term “sustainability” to further market themselves and capitalize on a trend. It’s not about deceiving your clients with some cunning use of words that mean nothing (“all-natural” baby!) or changing your product package to a new one with less plastic in it.

So, how can we help?

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

By being diligent when searching for your next product to buy. By not succumbing to cheap marketing tactics. And by advocating to others the importance of sustainability.

Cone Communications’ study finds that:

“87% of Americans will buy a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared about, and 76% will refuse to buy a company’s products or services upon learning it supported an issue contrary to their beliefs”.

Also, “63% of Americans are hopeful businesses will take the lead to drive social and environmental change moving forward, in the absence of government regulation”

Sustainable businesses focus their attention on more than profits — they also examine their impact on both society and the environment.

And if this trend of “being sustainable is good for business & the planet” spreads, it will create a positive domino-like effect as other businesses will follow suit.

That’s why we need to work together to tackle this issue. This isn’t about capturing an expanding market; this is about our home and our future.

Now that we’ve tackled the “what”, the next article will delve into the “how”. How can a business become more sustainable? Are there any steps or ways to achieve that? And you’ve guessed it, we’ll finish this mini-series with a closer look at the ever-important “why”. Why should any company strive for sustainability?

Stay tuned.