Human life has been on this earth for about 50,000 (or somewhere between 6000 and 200,000 depending on the source) years. If we assume that 50,000 is correct, for the first 49,800 or so years man has lived in the open fields, in the mountains, in the forests, next to lakes, rivers and oceans, or in the savannahs. As a result, this kind of life has been imbedded in the human gene as being normal. It is called biophilia from the Greek word meaning “love of nature.” In the past 100–200 years, however, man has lived in cities consisting of brick, concrete, steel, glass, etc. Genealogically, this is not normal. Consequently, when a person wants to feel good, he/she goes to the ocean, lake, mountains, or open fields. That is why most people have paintings of landscapes in their homes, and that is why almost all pictures in hospital hallways are those of landscapes. This makes people feel good. Is there a new norm?
As we deplete our natural resources and the population continues to increase, what is in store for human life on this planet? China’s economy as well as India’s and several other countries are growing as are their populations while the availability of natural resources and fresh water is decreasing. This means that these countries and other ones may have to import more food. But how are we going to feed this growing population? A new business paradigm is necessary.
In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, a business concept was introduced called Total Quality Management (TQM). This was promoted excessively in journals and by consultants. This eventually led to other business strategies like lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, and just-in-time inventory. These strategies were embedded in such a way that they became the standard operating procedure (SOP).
Today, more than ever, it is critical to adopt sustainability strategies as well as practices that are considered “green” but are not necessarily sustainable. Included in this latter category of what can be called “less bad” are energy efficiency, pollution prevention, waste reduction and recycling, supply-chain management, and others. All of these can still be considered critically important.
But then again, how does one know whether they are going in the right direction? This is where measuring certain key performance indicators (KPIs) is important. And being able to communicate this information to the business community, the non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the government and, most of all, to the consumer is very important. Fortunately, there are many companies worldwide that have made sustainability to be very important and have embedded it in their operations.
Sustainability strategies are needed more and more in organizations today, and the old business model with concentration on shareholder value seems to be replaced too slowly by the stakeholder value concept. We need to move on from short-term strategies to long-term ones, the core element of which will be more balanced relationships between communities, the environment and economic performance. Perhaps in 10 years we will not be talking about sustainability since all the organizations will have already implemented it just as it happened with the TQM concept. Sustainability should not be the responsibility of a person or a department within an organization, but rather the concept should be imbedded in the culture of the organization so that everyone within will work together to help solve our environmental issues.
Adopting sustainability strategies and measuring and reporting the results has become and will continue to be an important dimension of the business world and, more important, the global environment for the next few decades. While it will become the new norm, the importance of this business philosophy will only diminish after we are assured that the “environmental cliff” is not on the horizon.