Sustainability: what it means to people and companies and what they are doing (or need to do) to go about it. The interview between Peter Senge and Michael S. Hopkins touches upon various issues and wake up calls companies have faced or soon need to face in order to survive. According to Peter Senge, sustainability is not one of his favourite words because he feels it dilutes the true essence of the phenomenon associated with sustainability. Sustainability, he feels does not capture the true sense of what needs to be done and the steps companies and we as consumers need to take to better the world. Sustainability is directly about survival, about “paying attention to fundamental needs” more than creating an environment which is improved, healthier and more oriented to the future of mankind. However, sustainability is really more about “living together well” as he puts it.
Mankind has never faced the challenge it faces today, that of the world having shrunk. I do not mean this metaphorically, but literally, the world has shrunk! This shrinkage is mainly because we as a people have grown, seemingly out of proportion to our needs. We cannot simply “get up and move away” from our environmental problems because there is nowhere to move away to. It is high time we realise how “things” are built and what it takes for “stuff” to be made available to us. We must become aware that the “garbage” we throw away does not simply disappear off the face of the earth. And therefore, we must understand that as part of the value chain, it is our responsibility to not only see, but understand all of it. The systems which we are so comfortably used to, to which we are usually blind; need to be viewed clinically and the value chain needs to be repaired or restructured if it is to survive.
Sustainability does not necessarily mean losing our way of life, but bettering it, making it more efficient. A prime example of this is Portland, Oregon. This city has massively reduced its carbon footprint and overall waste, without compromising on the quality of life its citizens live. It is a widely accepted fact that America is a wasteful culture, because for some reason, it has been culturally ingrained that the ability to waste signifies affluence. This attitude is misguided at best and requires serious “looking at”. Affluence has no relation with how much one can waste, but how efficiently one can utilise what one has, and conserve what one doesn’t need at the time.
Many large companies are waking up to world problems because these problems will eventually become hindrances to their businesses. For example, Coca-Cola and Nestle realised that the world’s water problem will eventually cause major issues in the way they do business and so, they created the CEO water mandate. Coca-Cola and Nestle and essentially based on fresh water and without its availability in abundance, they cannot survive. This effort to preserve water and be responsible comes from a more strategic view than conscious, but it does the job. Many other companies such as Alcoa—a major aluminium producer has reduced its water footprint by 25% and are working to reduce it further. DuPont has realised that being on the downstream of the petroleum industry just does not make great business sense.
The view on sustainability is changing and people and organisations are waking up to the reality, but more than anything else, it is the fear of having to compromise on our “way of life” that paralyses us. Portland has tried to lead the way in this and has tried to set an example saying, “Being environmentally conscious does not necessarily mean compromising on your life style, but re-arranging it.” I think we need to view them as pioneers and use their knowledge, along with the plethora of knowledge available to us from older cultures and work towards a change, because being sustainable makes strategic sense for the entire planet, if nothing else!
Adityajit Tiwana
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