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Sustainability Expert Addresses Wisconsin Companies
Sustainability does not mean sacrificing a company’s economic success. To the contrary, efforts at sustainability will be keys to 21st-century success as shifts in population and wealth continue to shape the global market, said Meghan Chapple-Brown, director of client services for SustainAbility, a global consulting firm with offices in London, Washington, and Zurich. “The winners will be those who don’t see sustainable development as separate from business,” she told attendees of the annual conference of the Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association (WBMA) on October 18 in Madison.
The definition of sustainability may vary from business to business, but essentially it involves what SustainAbility founder John Elkington calls the “triple bottom line” of economic, social, and environmental performance. The firm counsels companies to merge philanthropic efforts with business strategies to develop new models for success.
The budding creativity of early 21st-century sustainable development reflects a change in priorities, said Chapple-Brown. Top-level executives are now involved in sustainability efforts, she said. No longer are sustainability activities left to the public relations or legal departments; they are on the agendas of CEOs, CFOs, investment bankers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. Increased attention to the issue by investors and by the news media may be responsible for this change, she said.
“Raising Our Game: Can We Sustain Globalization?” a report released by SustainAbility in May 2007 (available at www.sustainability.com), mapped out strategies companies can use to succeed on the “new playing fields” of globalization. Chapple-Brown highlighted two examples of these new fields. First, as the birth rate in developing countries continues to outpace the rest of the world during the coming decades, the locations of economic growth will shift accordingly—as will matters such as patterns of disease and energy consumption. Second, voids in governmental leadership will appear as the effects of globalization exceed the capabilities of existing structures. Companies willing to think and act creatively within this environment can help transform markets while enhancing their own triple bottom lines, said Chapple-Brown.
Surging globalization means companies must adopt new rules if they want to meet the challenges and opportunities before them, said Chapple-Brown. They must learn to anticipate consequences and to be flexible in their responses. They must engage with stakeholders and partners in new ways to generate new business models, as General Electric and Wal-Mart have done by joining together to develop a program to encourage the use of more environmentally friendly incandescent light bulbs. GE and Wal-Mart will have to convince customers to pay more while accepting fewer unit sales when these bulbs go on the market. Companies must determine how to conduct business in emerging markets, as consumers in China, Brazil, the Philippines, and India will not be able to pay as much for products and services as their counterparts in Europe and the United States can. They must get ahead of the curve before new patterns are set in emerging markets and must be proactive rather than respond to pressures. They must change their lobbying strategies to emphasize sustainability; for instance, advocating access to health care, differential price scales, and climate negotiations.
Four experts who responded to Chapple-Brown at the WBMA conference echoed her advice about merging environmental, societal and business concerns. Susan Beverly, manager of global citizenship and policy for Abbott, stressed the need to integrate sustainability throughout the company and to continually assess those efforts. “It’s a constant rethinking in response to an evolving economy,” she said. Madison’s Integrazyme, a small enzyme development company, has found profitable the development of sustainable products. The company works to “offer new products in a sustainable way and to retool old products to decrease pollution and save money,” said Edward Steele, chief operations manager. Currently Integrazyme is developing a new biodiesel blend. Matthew Peterson, a principal at Green Computing and Media, urged companies to commit the necessary resources, align their priorities with requirements of regulatory bodies around the world, and deliver what they promise. “There are no exemptions in the global environment,” he said. David Boyer, CEO of MCD Incorporated, addressed a basic question many companies may have: “why be involved in sustainability?” His answer: in order to compete in the global market, to differentiate themselves from their competitors, and because an “emerging consciousness and demand” will make it necessary.