Thriving in the Future: A Responsible Leader's Guide to Sustainability by Allen Morrison & Heidi Strebel

Author:Allen Morrison & Heidi Strebel
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: IMD Publishing
Published: 2015-02-14T22:00:00+00:00

Where can you have the largest impact?

Having identified the major elements that shape your company’s context, you will need to assess where your company’s greatest impacts on society and the environment are. Some refer to this as “materiality,” a term used in different fields, often to mean significance or importance. In some contexts it is obvious what a company’s largest impacts are, in others there may not be enough data, or incentives may be stacked against addressing them. In some instances it might be too frightening or overwhelming to make an honest assessment, particularly if the core business activities have substantial negative effects such as heavy pollution or the displacement of local communities in poor regions of the world.

As we saw in the section on addressing the challenges in Part 2, the temptation to misrepresent can become strong. In the short term, false advertising campaigns cost less than taking action to change core activities. An obvious example is that of an automobile manufacturer that touts its “green” credentials but continues to produce large, heavy vehicles. Its newer designs may be more fuel efficient than older ones but still highly polluting compared with the most efficient models on the market.

Another example is an oil company that advertises its switch to alternative renewable energies but then takes little or no action to transform itself. A now famous example is that of British Petroleum (BP) and its “beyond petroleum” brand campaign, which in retrospect seems entirely misleading. Oil remains the company’s core business, and non-fossil renewable energies projects and investments have represented only a small part of “bolted-on” or extra activities.44 Since the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP has in fact been cutting many of its renewable energy projects, notably a number of wind turbine projects, though it has maintained some biofuel projects.45

To ensure your efforts to achieve triple wins do not turn into a misrepresentative public relations campaign, you need to address your company’s most impactful activities. In the early stages of the sustainability journey, it is often easier to focus on the low-hanging fruit, the initiatives that quickly bring triple wins. In some industries these initiatives may indeed address a company’s largest impacts. However, in many industries, even though the economic, social and environmental benefits may seem considerable, the initiatives are almost afterthoughts and have little to do with the firm’s core products or services. To avoid remaining stuck in the early stages of the journey, you will need to re-examine opportunities for triple wins in your central value-creating business activities.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.