The sustainable business case

Young people get why businesses need to develop sustainability programs. Gen X and Y and Milleniums don’t want to give what matters to them most — their lifetimes – to promote the corporate bottom line. They want to work for companies that feel some responsibility to their communities and to issues that effect us all, like sustainability. More than that, they’ve got incredible radar for companies that are using PR to appear green — what they like to call “green washing.”

But sustainability is not necessarily a top priority for the business owners I talk to. From them I hear, “Times are tough. My job is to make a profit so I can continue to support my workers and their families. ‘Saving the environment’ is laudable, but I have to look at the bottom line.”

Making your business more sustainable and making a profit really mutually exclusive? Not according to Adam Werbach in a Harvard University video. Adam, the global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the world’s largest advertising companies, explains how big businesses can create a “sustainability culture” that is essential to their financial success.

He says that as resources like fuel become scarcer, companies that figure out a way to manage environmental factors are companies that are going to cope best. And, he says that a commitment to sustainability results in:

. better products
. engaged and committed employees
. more sales

Werbach warns that the efforts can’t be episodic. Really creating a culture that engages workers and that encourages them to come up with ideas to solve an environmental problem is critical.