Tag Archive for: Sustainability

6 Design Criteria for 21st Century Business Models

/by
  A company's business model is its blueprint for what it does, how it does it and how it generates enough income to be at least a going concern. Traditional 20th century business models imply that a corporation is an island, independent of societal of environmental boundaries and myopically focused on maximizing shareholders wealth. It's time for an upgrade to a model that is fit-for-purpose in today’s volatile and risky economy. As encouraged by the Business Roundtable, a 21st century business model explicitly acknowledges the company's surrounding environment and its purposeful stewardship of the wellbeing of other stakeholders. Building on other guidance on what a business model should contain, here are the 6 design criteria for 21st century business models. Read More

7 Ways Companies Can Contribute to the SDGs

/by
  The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a.k.a. the Global Goals, are increasingly embraced by companies as a useful reporting framework for their sustainability efforts. That’s a good thing. However, many companies focus on how they directly contribute to only three to five SDGs that are deemed to be most relevant to their business models and ignore the rest. They seriously undervalue their investments in social and environmental wellbeing. It’s time that they gave a more comprehensive and transparent account of the seven ways that they directly or indirectly create natural, human and social capital, as framed by the SDGs. Read More

7 Climate-Related Wake-Up Calls Are Fueling System Change

/by
“System change, not climate change” is the slogan for the global climate justice movement. It acknowledges that the socio-economic system that enabled our climate crisis must be transformed. A perfect storm of 7 climate-related wake-up calls are fueling system change. Read More

7 Reasons Why “Future Generations” are Key Stakeholders

/by
Climate destabilization is an existential threat to human civilization. Current and future generations are in jeopardy on our finite planet. So are businesses. They both have a lot at stake. There are seven reasons why it is time for companies to treat “Future Generations” as key stakeholders who are in urgent need of their attention.  Read More

5 Reasons Why “Mother Nature” is a Key Stakeholder

/by
For years, companies have treated the environment as an externality. The environment is not on their radar screens of stakeholders to whom they need to pay attention. Stakeholders are defined as “anybody who can affect, or is affected by, an organisation, strategy or project.” The environment is not a body / person. Maybe calling it “Mother Nature” would personify it enough for it to qualify as an “anybody.” There are five reasons why it’s time to treat Mother Nature as a key stakeholder. Read More

Are Three Enoughs Enough? Part 3: Making enough difference

/by
  Sustainability champions want to make a difference. We want to create a new paradigm of responsible businesses helping to create a just and resilient human society on a finite, healthy planet. How do we stay upbeat when we fear that we are not making enough difference to accomplish our lofty goals, quickly enough? Let’s look at three dimensions of the answer. Read More

Are Three Enoughs Enough? Part 1: Enough wealth

/by

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness.  Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

― Wilkins Micawber, clerk, in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield

  Lately, I’ve found myself revisiting the concept of “enough.” Maybe it’s time we all did. Maybe we would benefit from being satisfied with enough wealth, achieving enough sustainability, and making enough difference. I will explore these three “enoughs” in three blogs, starting with enough wealth. Read More

6 Reasons Why I’m Writing My First-Ever Integrated Report

/by
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with integrated reports. They are supposed to combine fragmented financial and sustainability reports into one report that explains how much financial and non-financial value a company created for all its stakeholders during the reporting period. That’s a good idea, but I’ve have been disappointed with the incoherence of most so-called integrated reports that I’ve seen so far. That disappointment leads me to the first of 6 reasons why I’m writing my first-ever integrated report for my sole proprietorship, Sustainability Advantage  Read More

7 Hopeful “I-Think-I-Can” Signals for Sustainability Champions

/by
Sustainability champions are “Little Engines That Could.” We are hopeful optimists. We see what is possible and refuse to be discouraged by steep challenges impeding our progress. Our mantra is, “I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can.” We are energized by reports like the annual State of Green Business 2018 that say an environmental, social and governance (ESG) mindset is moving from the margins into the mainstream. There are 7 hopeful “I think-I-can” signals for sustainability champions which back up this trend, especially on the existential climate change issue. Read More

5 Reasons to Attend the “Doing Business & Doing Good Summit”

/by
          As the summer winds down, I encourage you to consider attending an upcoming sustainability conference.  There are five reasons to attend the Doing Business & Doing Good Summit. Read More