Sustainability is at best a fuzzy concept (I've seen, oh, maybe a bazillion different definitions for what it actually means). Sustainability with our personal decisions is complex enough, but throw in the bottom line demands of the business world and the multiple parties involved - employees, investors, suppliers, distributors, etc. - and it gets even more challenging to define, much less pursue.
So how does a business take steps towards sustainability in such a sea of complexity? Mal Warwick, co-author of the book Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, offers 20 steps every company can take to move towards sustainability.
Here is a pared down nutshell version. Go to the article for the full article...
1. Start by rethinking the purpose of your business—and don’t tell me your purpose is to make widgets or make money.
2. Recognize that you’re not the only one in your enterprise who is seeking meaning in your life. Your employees are, too (not to mention all your other stakeholders).
3. Engage your employees as leaders. One of the most meaningful ways you can give your employees a sense that their contributions are valued and their voices heard is by involving them in decision-making.
4. Maslow can also teach you, if you need to learn the lesson, that your employees can’t seek meaning in life unless their most fundamental need is satisfied: to survive—to feed, clothe, and house themselves and their families and to obtain care for them when they’re sick.
5. Consider profit-sharing as a way to boost morale, increase productivity, and foster a sense of ownership among your employees. Businesses that cut employees in on a share of the action through a meaningful profit-sharing program almost invariably find that turnover drops and profits soar.
6. Share the wealth created by your business. Whether you’re a sole owner, or a manager or investor with a commanding share of control, there is no better way to provide for your own financial security in the future than by turning your employees into partners through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan or similar means.
7. Commit your business to the health and wellness of its employees (not to mention your own!). Share the burden of healthcare costs with your employees; if feasible, underwrite it entirely.
8. Build into your core business policies and practices a commitment to diversity and inclusion, taking necessary steps to recruit, train, and support employees that represent the full range of ethnic, gender, and racial diversity of your community.
9. Conduct an environmental and energy audit of your company’s operations, using a third-party auditor.
10. Based on the findings of your environmental and energy audit, draft an environmental policy statement and environmental management system that will guide your company’s resource use in the future.
11. Heed the 3 Rs and 1 C of contemporary recycling: reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost—and involve your customers, too.
12. When designing new products and considering the materials to be used in them, plan for the products’ full lifetime, including their manufacturing, transportation, use, and disposal.
13. Take a look around, and assess your suppliers, vendors, and strategic partners. Do their labor standards, environmental standards, and levels of community involvement match your own? Are they the best partners you can find to help you run your business in synch with your values?
14. Find at least one way that you can involve your employees in a high-profile effort to benefit the community or communities where you do business.
15. At least once annually, hold an all-staff meeting (or a meeting in each work unit or facility) to discuss how the company can improve its performance on the non-financial aspects of your business—the social and environmental factors that go hand-in-hand with financial factors in a triple-bottom-line business.
16. Describe your vision, mission, and values in a flyer or brochure, and in a post on your company’s Web site. Distribute it to all your stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, investors, and key community leaders.
17. Once or twice a year, involve your employees, customers, or both in selecting a social or environmental issue of shared concern.
18. Once a month, hold a staff meeting where a leading local nonprofit organization may make a brief presentation to familiarize you and your employees with its work.
19. Hold a staff meeting to discuss philanthropy with your employees. Discuss the roles that they, individually and collectively, as well as the company might play in a philanthropic program.
20. Become a spokesperson for the triple bottom line.
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I like that tip where the customers are mentioned. That 3R's and 1 C with the customer shows that the bond between you and your customers is an important one and that's one of the vital fuels that will keep your business running.
Posted by: Staci Burruel | April 07, 2011 at 09:47 PM