Sustainability - The BIG Little Word That Could

It absolutely had to happen sooner or later. It survived for years as the property of environmental activisim. And now, it is beginning to slide ever so quietly into the corporate mantra. With continued external and internal pressure it may even advance from the coffee room into the board room. “Sustainability” To the core of the green industry this word has a well defined meaning and purpose. Indeed it is the foundation of and defines an entire movement. But change is in the wind.

'Sustainability' has been a rallying cry to the environmental movement for many years. Many of the less enlightened controlled it and tarnished it and nearly succeeded in making it a mere emotionally charged buzz word with little or no real meaning. Then came the rallying cry of scientists when they presented proof that global climate change is indeed happening. Suddenly the word was less a buzz word and more a verifiable solution to a real problem. The problem root cause being globally unsustainable industrial growth.

Industry thrives on anything that equates to increased shareholder value. Increasing shareholder value as currently practiced means; market to more, sell more, manufacture more, increase inventory turns, obsolete it faster and then, start over and go faster next time. Sustainability by definition means use less, use it longer, reuse it more, recycle it repeatedly and eliminate waste. Sustainability as originally defined simply did not work for traditional industry. Should it be surprising to anyone that business had a fundamental problem with this word as originally defined?

As soon as traditional industries and conservative political interests realized that their reputations, constituencies, customers and profitability were subject to a ground swell of momentum – the green movement - the work or work-over began on the words meaning and a perceived enemy.

First were the attacks levied against the messengers of impending climate change – the scientists. The Bush administration at the urging of certain industry lobbyists began a campaign of disinformation and misinformation regarding global warming. The negative PR campaign was augmented with targeted assaults on eminently respected climate scientists and scientific institutions around the world. And then, the ultimate in arrogance, ignorance and what was later discovered to be ‘greed’ – the renouncement by the Bush administration of the Kyoto Accord. Did they actually believe in their own rhetoric or was there something else, an underlying truth that would come out over time? All signs point to the later. The resistive stance as it turns out was all about increasing corporate profits.

Around the time the US economy began to show signs of weakness – around the same time someone in Washington told us all; “The economy is fundamentally strong”, a shift in the political winds regarding climate change magically became public – (Coincidental?). Perhaps it was the breaking apart of a yet another massive Antarctic ice shelf that provided the administration the necessary encouragement – (more likely). In any case ‘’Sustainability” and "Green" suddenly became a household words in America and to a lessor extent the rallying cry of the developed world.

For the traditional industry giants - it was Game On!

Page forward to today and a search for “Sustainability” on Google results in numerous hits associated with consulting services, products and services all relating to the green, CleanTech and renewable energy industry segments. However, hits are starting to occur in large numbers (> 250,000) relating to ‘Corporate’ Sustainability. A new movement is brewing among established corporations to relate operations, productivity and service offerings to the green movement. ‘Relate’ being the operative word here. A review of these corporate sponsored sustainability sites reveals an interesting difference in an established definition. Call it green-lite.
This is not to say that all companies that have begun to practice 'corporate sustainability' are not in compliance with the newly charged-up environmental movement. Many are actively changing their habits and grasping the cause of environmental responsibility. And a growing contingent of organizations fully understand the impact of past mistakes and are fully emmersing their operations in sustainable practices. Kudos go out to these trend setting role model evangelists.

The corporate sustainability chatter is buzzing all over the internet. Whether for fear of being labeled by colleagues as alarmist, environmentalist or greenies a good chunk of these conversations are completely missing or omitting the point. A sampling of the definitions of many corporations developing 'sustainable' practices yields keywords such as; permanence, reputation, resilience, prosperity and risk management. I am assuming the last one is an attempt to relate to sustainable practices as defined by the green movement. Standing alone it has no such meaning. Defined - risk management - refers to a companies ability to remain agile in a changing business climate full of competitors, business obstacles and challenges.

This new corporate sustainability movement is growing fast – at the speed of business. At the current pace we may see ‘Sustainability’ dissolve into the corporate wordsmith abyss before the decade is over. Can this inspiring words meaning be preserved before it is bent into something potentially unrecognizable?

No doubt, the word will be here for a long time and with luck the entire corporate world will embrace it's true full meaning. Keeping the momentum going is the challenge. And with what appears to be an agenda and related federal budget with teeth, soon to be enacted by the Obama administration, the light at the end of the tunnel looks bright. With luck the ground swell of public support will become a mountain of positive change. It must happen this way. We don't really have any other options available to us.

Then again is it time for a brand new buzz word. One that will stand the test of time. A single resilliant word that fits the bill and tells the story clearly, consisely and permanently.

Nahhh... Sustainability is good!