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This paper offers a solid framework to help leaders of big and small businesses alike to break through the obstacles to building a thriving, growing sustainability enterprise.
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SCALE-UP,
SPEED UP:
I0 STRATEGIES TO ACCELERATE THE IMPACT
OF YOUR SUSTAINABILITY BUSINESS
DECEMBER 2013
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
2
Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................ 3
What We Mean by Sustainability ................................................................................................................................... 4
Pathways To Scale ............................................................................................................................................................. 5
Barriers To Scale ............................................................................................................................................................... 6
Barriers To Scale for Big Business ............................................................................................................................ 6
Barriers To Scale for Small Business ........................................................................................................................ 9
Creating New Ecosystems............................................................................................................................................... 9
CASE STUDY – Change System Conditions to Encourage Change .......................................................... 11
CASE STUDY – Drive a Solution to Force Change....................................................................................... 12
Scaling Strategies .............................................................................................................................................................. 12
Scaling Strategies for Big Business ........................................................................................................................... 13
Organizational Focus – Strategies to Shift the Organization ....................................................................... 13
Ecosystem Focus – Strategies to Drive Collaborative Solutions ................................................................ 16
Scaling Strategies for Small Business ....................................................................................................................... 21
Organizational Focus – Strategies to Build a Strong, Fit-for-Purpose Team ............................................ 21
Ecosystem Focus – Strategies to Forge Strategic Relationships .................................................................. 22
Summary of Scaling Strategies .................................................................................................................................. 22
Change Strategy ............................................................................................................................................................... 23
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Endnotes ............................................................................................................................................................................ 25
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
3
Introduction Sustainability business champions encounter obstacles to the growth and development of their
enterprise that “old economy” businesses do not face.
Growing a sustainable enterprise is exciting – it is a world of innovation and opportunity. At the
same time, the gravitational pull of short-termism, fossilized mind-sets, and institutional systems
designed for a by-gone industrial age represent significant obstacles to growth.
All around we see promising sustainability projects yet too often exciting new initiatives hit a
ceiling that slows or blocks further progress. The findings
of the UN Global Compact CEO Survey on Sustainability
2013 backs up this observation.
The CEO Survey found that 93 percent of CEOs regard
sustainability as key to success. 1 Yet, the ratio of CEOs
who perceive sustainability as very important to their
business has fallen since the previous survey in 2010. In
2010, 54 percent of CEOs said sustainability would be
“very important” to the future success of their business. In
2013, this figure fell to 45 percent. Businesses, CEOs in the
survey believe, are not leading on sustainability in the way
that was predicted three years ago. They have reached a plateau in their efforts.
The challenge: how can you surmount the obstacles to scale that you encounter so you can break
through them and build a thriving, growing sustainability enterprise? What are the strategies that
have been shown to work?
Ultimately, how can a business leader “mainstream” sustainability
so that other actors in the economy buy into the vision and act in
concert to create the conditions necessary for wide scale
adoption?
In this whitepaper, we offer a solid framework to help leaders of
big and small businesses alike grapple with this challenge.
Our framework provides a menu of proven strategies – strategies
that can help break through the inevitable obstacles that arise as you grow your sustainability
enterprise.
Business champions of
sustainability encounter
obstacles to growth and
development not typically
experienced by “old
economy” businesses.
How can a sustainability
champion overcome the
obstacles of the old
order and scale up
innovative solutions at
an accelerated pace?
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
4
What We Mean by Sustainability Sustainability is a loaded word that can mean
virtually anything to anybody. There is no
universally accepted definition.
Martin Melaver, CEO of Melaver Inc., has a
useful definition. He says that the Latin root
perhaps best explains “sustainable” as
something that feeds us or nurtures us. He
notes that there are critical metaphysical,
spiritual, and physical connotations to the
term. A sustainable business provides
sustenance for life and living. It is about
being part of what the naturalist Aldo
Leopold once described as a “land-
community” ethic. 2
Business leaders in this area work towards
sustainability in three broad ways: via
footprint, handprint, and blueprint. 3 The
place to start for any business is to minimize
its own environmental footprint on the
planet by reducing emissions and being
energy and resource efficient.
The second way is to assess and optimize
the business handprint in terms of the value
proposition and whether products and
services make a net positive contribution for
a more livable and just world.
And the third way is for businesses to
engage with the broader community to
create a blueprint and take action for
healthier communities and better
institutional systems. Experts in the field
view collaboration with other actors in the
system as the most promising way to align
system parameters (e.g. market incentives,
government policies, regulations, etc.) that
enable break through performance.
Leaders of sustainability businesses strive for
a world in which economic, social,
environmental and cultural aspirations are
considered not as isolated goals, but as
interdependent parts of a single system.4 This definition aligns with the “triple bottom
line” concept.
Ultimately, sustainability businesses are
regenerative; they restore, replenish, and
rejuvenate. A regenerative enterprise
provides more services to the human and
natural world than it takes out.5
Measuring regenerative benefits is difficult
but Michael Dell of Dell Computer wants his
company to try. He has announced a
goal of “measuring not only the
sustainable and social initiatives Dell can
execute, but also the ripple effect of
True sustainability is part
of core strategy, it’s not
an “add on,” and people
can detect the difference.
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
5
how our technology enables others to
benefit the planet.” Over the next seven
years, Dell seeks to generate ten times
more benefit through its technology than it
takes to make and use it in the first place.6
This perspective of the business meets the
sustainability test.
Pathways To Scale “Scale-up, speed up” in the context of this paper means doing much more of something that
contributes to sustainability and doing so at a faster rate.
What this looks like will be different for every company. It could mean moving to a zero waste
operation or achieving widespread adoption of a clean technology.
Or it could mean successfully working with politicians to create incentives for adoption of
renewable energies.
The pathways to scale from the perspective of the global economy can be viewed as a
progression from the Eureka moment of invention followed by experimentation, the development
of new business models, the creation of new ecosystems of activity, and finally a flip to a new
economy when the tipping point is reached7:
Figure 1: Pathways to Scale
In this model and given our current
institutional arrangements, there is a point
at which it becomes more difficult for a
sustainability enterprise to stay on a
The economic
system flips to a more
sustainable state
supported by culture
change.
Economy
Critical mass and
partnerships evolve new
markets and institutional
arrangements.
Ecosystem
Investors and
managers build new
business models
creating new forms of
value.
Entrepreneur
Innovators and entrepreneurs
begin to experiment, a period of trial
and error.
Experiment
Opportunity is revealed
via the growing
dysfunction of the
existing order.
Eureka!
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
6
scale-up trajectory without the cooperation
and alignment of other actors in the
economy.
This threshold is at stage 4, the ecosystem
stage. At stages 4 and 5, it is important that
external factors such as market signals,
regulations, and the policy environment
support the growth of a particular
sustainability solution. In many cases, these
supportive conditions do not exist and so
growth becomes stalled.
Many businesses have embarked on the
sustainability journey; some are further
along than others. The majority of
businesses on the journey are active
somewhere in the first three stages of
implementing sustainability, as indicated by a
recent survey by Deloitte and Volans.8
Such enterprises serve as laboratories of
sustainable business practices and provide
exemplars for us to study. Thousands of
companies across all sectors have published
sustainability reports.9 But such practices
and projects are only part of the solution.
We should also learn from the business
leaders who are successfully driving the
transformations needed to overhaul their
companies and the ecosystems in which they
operate so they can really scale-up the
sustainability aspects of their businesses.
Examples of leading companies on this
journey are Unilever, Interface Global,
and Patagonia.
These companies understand that existing
ecosystems and economies are replete with
barriers to a business trying to scale a
sustainable solution. By making changes in
ecosystems and economies, they are able to
reach tipping points that position their
sustainable products and services for takeoff
and widespread adoption.
For example, when electrical systems were
modernized for light bulbs, if you were in
the business of light bulbs, your sales took
off. But if you were selling kerosene lamps,
your sales plummeted. So pushing for
change in an ecosystem to tipping points is
often necessary to clear the way for new
sustainability solutions.
Barriers To Scale Business is no stranger to the scaling challenge. After all, the quest for business growth is
constant. But rapid growth from a sustainability perspective is particularly difficult. Big businesses
trying to make the shift must deal with the legacies and complications of what already exists,
whereas small to medium-sized businesses (i.e. SMEs) have to navigate the tricky shoals of starting
up a new enterprise. In both cases, once a sustainability business has achieved some traction, it
encounters obstacles to growth within its ecosystem and economy.
Barriers To Scale for Big Business The UN Global Compact CEO Survey on
Sustainability 2013 found that even as CEOs
are making progress in embedding
sustainability throughout their business, it is
becoming increasingly apparent that they
feel constrained by factors that hinder more
progress. Figure 2 below sets out the most
significant barriers identified by the CEOs,
which keeps them from implementing an
integrated and strategic company-wide
approach to environmental, social and
corporate governance issues.10
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
7
Figure 2: Critical Barriers for CEOs, 2013
The most significant barriers were found to
be the lack of financial resources, competing
strategic priorities, and the lack of a clear
link to business value.
It is perhaps unsurprising that lack of
financial resources and competing priorities
are the top constraints. New innovations
often have to compete for resources against
products and services with an established
revenue stream and entrenched product
champions. People tend to protect their turf
and are often unwilling to share resources.
Poor economic conditions and competition
for resources only exacerbate this problem.
Moreover, large companies are prone to
miss implementing disruptive technologies
because they are tied to their existing
offerings (known as the innovator’s
dilemma). Many struggle to innovate and
build new businesses. They often opt to buy
smaller companies with promising
technologies but then they have the
challenge of merging divergent cultures.
Large companies also tend to overlook what
appear to be small markets because they
need big markets to satisfy their short-term
growth objectives. Shareholders and
financial markets put pressure on CEOs for
quarterly profit growth. Short-termism
sabotages sustainability efforts made for the
long-term.
Three other constraints highlighted by the
CEOs point to the difficulty of embedding
sustainability in large organizations. These
constraints are extending and implementing
strategy across a corporation’s supply
chain, its subsidiaries, and its business
functions. As businesses grow they
become more complex and
8%
8%
11%
13%
22%
22%
27%
30%
33%
37%
44%
51%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Other
Lack of support from top management
None of the above
Extending strategy throughout subsidiaries
Lack of recognition from investors
Lack of knowledge
Implementing strategy across business functions
Difficulty due to operating environment
Extending strategy throughout the supply chain
No clear link to business value
Competing strategic priorities
Lack of financial resources
Percentage of repondents identifying each factor among their top three choices.
CEOs in the survey saw
one constraint intensifying
more than any other over
the past decade
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
8
bureaucratic. Change becomes more difficult
and takes time because of the number of
people, functions and systems involved.
Some people resist change
because they perceive more
to lose and less to gain from
a big shift. Paradoxically, not
changing is the bigger risk in
terms of business continuity.
CEOs in the survey saw one
constraint intensifying more
than any other over the past
decade: the lack of a link
between sustainability and business value
drivers. In 2007, just 18 percent reported a
failure to trace such a link and this year
more than a third - 37 percent - reported
this factor as deterring them from taking
faster action on sustainability.
Despite the search for new
conceptions of value -
“shared value” for example -
CEOs in the survey were
clear that action must be
justified against traditional
measures of success. Yet,
the sustainability leaders
have envisioned a new kind
of dashboard that drives
them to excel according to
traditional business metrics, as well as by
sustainability metrics aimed at solving global
challenges. They follow both compasses at
the same time:
“An examination of survey responses from the companies covered by this year’s study
and by Accenture’s long-term High-Performance Business research program produces
the early indications of a potentially striking conclusion. CEOs of companies that combine
externally-recognized sustainability leadership with market-leading business performance,
as measured by traditional metrics including revenue growth, profitability and
shareholder returns, approach sustainability in markedly different ways to those who are
failing to achieve this distinction – with different motivations, different influencers and
different areas prioritized for investment, innovation and action. Leading CEOs are
already uncovering strategies for sustainability that allow them to deliver both value
creation for their companies and impact on global challenges.”11
The nature of the top constraints
acknowledged by the CEOs suggests that
the vast majority of businesses are still in the
early stages of the sustainability journey and
they have, in effect, become stuck. Some of
these CEOs may have a bifurcated view of
sustainability, a view that sees sustainability
as something separate from the core
business. The sustainability leaders don’t
look at it this way – they integrate
sustainability into the core of their business.
Accenture has found that only a small
cluster of business leaders have an
integrated perspective of business and
sustainability that gives them the rationale
for investing in sustainability. These leaders
are further along in their sustainability
journey. This gives them the laser focus that
enables them to advocate and collaborate
effectively with external system actors on
transforming ecosystems and economies.
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
9
Barriers To Scale for Small Business The challenge for SMEs is more apt to be the successful commercialization of a new technology
or product, which can be a treacherous process (see Figure 3). SMEs also share some of the
challenges facing big business. Taking a technology from concept to market requires skill,
resources and a good deal of luck.
An effective commercialization process has six stages each of which has technical, marketing, and
business issues to address. At any step, unforeseen issues can arise that can derail the technology
if the process is not well managed.
Figure 3: Technology Commercialization Model12
A new innovation in any industry has the added challenge of displacing the established paradigm.
For example, take Method Cleaning Products, which produces nontoxic, biodegradable natural
cleaning supplies with a focus on minimalist product design. Method has gained recognition for its
commitment to sustainability, including taking innovative steps to measure and reduce its carbon
footprint. In 2006, Inc. Magazine named Method the 7th fastest-growing private company in the
United States. For all of its success, when its co-founder spoke at the Conscious Capitalism 2013
Conference in San Francisco, he good-naturedly urged delegates to buy the company’s laundry
detergent because “it’s so hard to get people to switch their laundry detergent.”13 This is just one
example of how difficult it can be to displace an established brand with a new more sustainable
one.
Creating New Ecosystems CEOs that are implementing sustainability
will eventually come up against constraints
in their operating environment that frustrate
efforts to scale their solution into the
marketplace. This is the stage where the
CEO feels friction between his/her
sustainability solution and the company’s
ecosystem.
An ecosystem, a concept borrowed
from biology, encompasses the players
in the system, the complex interactions
between them, and the impact of the
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
10
environmental conditions on the system.
Acting together, the system players create
the regulatory, political, cultural and other
system conditions that either support or
work against a sustainability solution.
To date, national governments have
generally not taken a strong leadership role
in shaping ecosystems and economies in a
sustainable direction. For example, a
GlobeScan/SustainAbility survey of
sustainability experts from 117 countries
found that a lack of will by political leaders
has been the main barrier to progress in
implementing the sustainability agenda
formulated at the 1992 Rio Conference on
Sustainable Development14.
In the same survey, most sustainability
experts said the best way for companies to
contribute to sustainability is technological
development and innovation (See Figure
4).15 The second best way is to work with
governments to establish a regulatory
environment that supports sustainable
development. Also rated highly is
participating in multi-sectoral partnerships.
These collaborative actions are needed to
change ecosystems and cultivate the
conditions for large-scale change.
Figure 4: Best Way for Companies to Contribute to Sustainability, 2012
A small group of progressive business leaders are not waiting for governments to lead on
sustainability. These leaders are driving the agenda and inviting the players to the table where
needed to create the conditions for change. They are committed to using their companies’
resources, infrastructure, and reach for delivering solutions to the marketplace while producing
superior returns for their investors and stakeholders.
The business community has formed a
number of alliances and coalitions to push
for ecosystem changes. Take the
example of The B Team: Recognizing
8%
26%
28%
28%
29%
33%
41%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Engaging employees on sustainability initiatives
Mobilizing suppliers on sustainability initiatives
Participating in multi-sectoral partnerships
Influencing customers toward positive behaviour
change
Improving internal sustainability performance
Working with govts. to establish regulations that
support sustainable development
Contributing technological development and
innovation
As Stated by Sustainability Experts
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
11
the need to put some corporate muscle
behind the “people, planet, profit” mission,
Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group and
Jochen Zeitz, a former Puma CEO, have
spearheaded the formation of The B Team,
a new global not-for-profit organization. The
group has formulated a Plan B (Plan A is the
pursuit of short-term profit at the exclusion
of everything else) that will initially tackle
challenges in leadership values, triple bottom
line accountability, and compensation
incentives.16
The B Team and other business initiatives
like it aim to drive systemic change. As
Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post
and a B Team member put it: “At a time
when so many governments are gridlocked
and paralyzed and unable or unwilling to
pursue big, bold, far-sighted goals, the
private sector has a responsibility and a
unique opportunity to become a catalyst for
fundamental change.”17
A new breed of business leaders is emerging calling for
“market revolutions.” They are not happy simply
patching dysfunctional systems ... They want to create
new ones that work in different ways18.
At least two pathways exist for making systemic change: one is to strategically change various
system conditions to support and encourage an intended change. The other is to drive a solution
that is so successful that system players are compelled to change conditions and in so doing
reinforce its spread.19 Below are example case studies of the two approaches to changing
ecosystems.
CASE STUDY – Change System Conditions to Encourage Change
An example of strategically changing various system conditions to support and
encourage an intended change is the solid waste diversion strategies of the
Capital Regional District (CRD), a local government on Vancouver Island. While
the CRD is not a business, business can learn from its experience. Faced with
limited physical capacity for landfilling solid waste, the CRD and its collaborators
implemented a range of strategies based on reduce, reuse and recycling (3Rs) for
diverting waste materials from the Hartland Landfill near Victoria. The CRD
worked with the Provincial Government, the general public, member municipal
governments and industry to create the system conditions and infrastructure
necessary for program success. By strategically addressing each type of waste
material, the CRD in conjunction with its partners has diverted 48 percent (2012)
of the base-line waste stream while creating new jobs and business activities in
the region.
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
12
CASE STUDY – Drive a Solution to Force Change
The microbrewery sector in British Columbia is an example of driving a solution
that is starting to compel system players to change the environmental conditions.
Micro brewing is arguably a sustainability business when done responsibly. Sales
have been growing at 25 percent per year to the point where craft beer now
represents 20 percent of all beer sales in the province despite historically
restrictive liquor laws.20 The sector has grown in spite of government policies not
because of it, driven by the passion and desire of entrepreneurs. But the
Provincial and local governments have begun to recognize the sector’s benefits
making the rules somewhat more accommodative. For example, this year the
Provincial Government ruled to allow on-site consumption of craft beer and
more favourable mark-up rates (i.e. taxes), although the rates apply to relatively
large brewers too.21 Nonetheless, the beer market in the province is
transforming from a few large-volume producers with centralized production and
far-flung distribution systems to many small-volume craft brewers with
neighbourhood establishments.
Sustainability business leaders eventually have to decide whether they have the will to drive
transformative change in their ecosystem. The route is challenging but, as illustrated by the
examples above, not impossible. It requires a shared vision and a commitment to execution by
the system players. The players need to acknowledge the need for change and then collaborate
for solutions.
Scaling Strategies The preceding section addressed the overall
challenge of changing ecosystems so they
are supportive of sustainability. Without
supportive environmental conditions, it may
be impossible to achieve scale.
This section presents key strategies for
accelerating the impact of your sustainability
business. The strategies fall into two
categories: strategies for re-shaping your
organization and strategies for interacting
with other actors in your ecosystem.
Sustainability champions drive activities in
both categories. Reshaping your
organization ensures you have something
that customers value and that you are able
to scale. Whereas interacting with other
actors is needed to remove systemic
barriers to scale.
Imagine the scaling challenge from two
different perspectives: from the perspective
of a large company or a “keystone22“
company which dominates a prevailing
market but wishes to shift into the
sustainability space; and from the
perspective of the SME that aims to displace
the dominant, but unsustainable solution,
with a more sustainable solution.
Each business type has a different challenge
and therefore a different set of strategies,
although there is overlap. Both business
types will have to attend to internal
organizational issues, as well as to its
role in changing the ecosystem.
The Zethof Consulting Group
Scale-Up, Speed Up: 10 Strategies to Accelerate the Impact of your Sustainabiltiy Business
13
Scaling Strategies for Big Business Big business strategies centre on becoming focused on sustainability, on cracking the inertia
surrounding legacy products and processes, and on collaborating with other players in the
ecosystem to co-create the conditions for change.
Organizational Focus – Strategies to Shift the Organization
1. Have Higher Order Purpose – Who
you are and what you stand for as a
business has become the most significant
differentiator of performance.23 There is
a growing segment of the population
that looks beyond the product or
service to assess the values and
behaviours of the business itself. They
are attracted to companies with a
purpose beyond maximizing profits.
Take the case of millennials who are
emerging as the world’s most dominant
consumer group. There are 1.7 billion
millennials globally with 61 percent living
in Asia.24 In the US alone, they are
projected to spend more than $2.45
trillion annually by 2015.25
There are data indicating that this
demographic group is particularly
interested in sustainability. For example,
the World Economic Forum cites a
survey finding that 84 percent of global
millennials believe it is their generation’s
duty to improve the world (90 percent
in China).26 Beyond product affordability
and quality, millennials look for brand
characteristics that relate to
sustainability. These include trust (78%),
environmental friendliness (71%), ethical
practices (71%), and alignment with a
cause or social issue (61%).27
These data indicate that the potential
influence of sustainability on millennial
shopping behaviour and choices is huge.
The choices of these consumers will
almost certainly be driven by necessity
as climate change and other
sustainability challenges intensify.28
To be credible in millennial eyes,
companies need to know and execute
their higher order purpose in terms of
value to society. Every business can
define a higher order purpose. For
example, Patagonia sells outdoor
clothing and gear but its whole approach
revolves around sustainability. Casey
Sheahan, CEO, describes Patagonia’s
business model as “purpose driven.”29
As he puts it, “we are not about selling
stuff, but about solving problems.” The
company’s philosophy likely helps to
explain sales growth of 30 percent from
2008 to 2013 despite the economic
recession.30
2. Lead Differently – Leaders best suited
for sustainability organizations with
global impact are “servant leaders.”
They focus on human relationships
both inside the organization and
externally with stakeholders. No
Leaders best suited for
sustainability organizations
with global impact are
“servant leaders.”
The Zethof Consulting Group
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14
one leader has the personal capacity to
develop and deliver the solutions
needed in a complex world. They work
through others to achieve a common
mission. They create cultures based on
love, not fear. As Casey Sheahan of
Patagonia put it: “We are a tribe of
caring people galvanized around a
purpose.31”
By nurturing a positive culture, a leader
can more easily scale the enterprise
because employees take initiative and
make choices that are in alignment with
the business vision. These leaders
understand system dynamics. They are
excellent facilitators and
communicators, necessary skills for
building bridges within the organization
and with other players in the ecosystem.
They can collaborate across for-profit
and not-for-profit boundaries.
3. Eliminate Environmental Footprint
– Initiatives to reduce and eliminate a
company’s environmental footprint are
fundamental. Life cycle analysis can
identify opportunities to reduce
environmental impacts associated with
all the stages of a product's life from
cradle-to-cradle (i.e., from raw material
extraction through materials processing,
manufacture, distribution, use, repair
and maintenance, and recycling/reuse).
Ecodesign can consider all of the
environmental aspects of a new product
or service at the early design stage
before the environmental impacts of a
product are irretrievably locked in.
Consider the supply chain too. It has
been found that typically 50 percent to
70 percent of business value and carbon
emissions is generated in the supply
chain,32 so companies positioning for
scale would do well to work for
sustainability across their supply chains.
Successes achieved by one company can
be replicated by other companies. We
have seen how a brand can be harmed
by not taking into account the
behaviours and policies of suppliers, the
Bangladesh garment factory fire and
deaths being a recent and tragic
example.
4. Satisfy People’s Deepest Yearnings
– New research by Havas Media Group,
which surveyed 134,000 people around
the world, shows that consumers would
not care if 73 percent of brands
disappeared.33 At the same time,
consumers believe brands have the
ability to play a role in improving their
quality of life and wellbeing (58 percent
in America agreed).34
As Amy du Pon, head of strategic
planning at Havas puts it: “In an age of
transparency and empowerment, brands
are not meeting people's requirements.
People expect large companies to be
involved in social problems and their
quality of life but companies are not
delivering on this new social contract.”35
How can business leaders reconcile
these findings and have any hope of
scaling their offerings? Not surprisingly,
a recent Accenture consumer survey
found that only 26 percent of executives
said they have a complete
understanding of how consumer
behaviour is changing and 40
percent said the “inherent
Scaling a business before
minimizing its environmental
footprint would be counter-
productive.
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15
unpredictability of consumers is the
main barrier to understanding them
better.”36
Rene Lertzman, a psychosocial
researcher, sheds more light on this
issue:
Too many companies are
trying to change consumer
behaviour through persuasion,
rather than trying to get to the
bottom of the confusion
consumers face. How do we
get people to change behaviour
is the wrong question. More
important is how we can
understand better and access
levels of people's dilemmas
and contradictions.37
Many companies have reached maximum
efficiency but are struggling to move
towards value creation.38
Richard Gillies, Director of
Environmental and Social Sustainability,
Marks and Spencer, has a constructive
view: “Maybe business isn’t giving
consumers what they really want.”39
After all, another survey found that one
third of Americans are consumer
activists, either boycotting or
“joycotting” (the opposite of boycotting)
products or services because of a
company’s social or political values, so
we know they care.40
The key is to listen to people far more
carefully and understand market
requirements far more deeply. When
people feel they are being heard, they
can be more honest about their desires
and then business will have a better
basis for delivering a value proposition
that can scale.
5. Redesign Business Models –
Innovation of a business model can
unlock opportunities to create more
value for customers and stakeholders
while solving multiple sustainability
challenges. Unlocking more “shared”
value can give billions of disadvantaged
people a way of satisfying their needs
through the market. This strategy can be
the catalyst for scaling an innovative
solution that cannot be delivered by
conventional business models.
Example - Transform a
Product into a Service: A
growing number of
companies have discovered
increased customer loyalty
and superior financial
returns by using a
continuous customer service
model. With this business
model, a company provides
an ongoing service for a fee
rather than makes a one-off
sale. An example is Interface
Global, which designs,
produces and sells
environmentally conscious
modular carpeting. Interface
enters into service contracts
promising that its
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floorcovering will continue
to meet an agreed upon
quality standard. The
company replaces only the
carpet tiles that are worn
out thus minimizing the
environmental impact.
Interface’s Mission Zero is a
promise to eliminate any
negative impact the company
has on the environment by
the year 2020.
Example – Circular
Economies: Vertical farms
with closed loop systems
need less energy for
transportation, emit less
carbon, use less water, and
have more frequent crop
turns than conventional
farms making them a
compelling business
proposition. FarmedHere
uses aquaponics and
aeroponics to grow mostly
leafy green crops under
controlled conditions
indoors. They achieve up to
22 crop turns a year
compared to 2 or 3 crop
turns for conventional farms.
Their Chicago plant has a
closed-loop system
circulating wastewater from
fish tanks to 3000 square
feet of growing beds and
back again. The company
also plans to anaerobically
digest root waste to
generate power for the
growing lamps making the
process more energy
efficient. Total production
from vertical farming is still
small but there is huge
potential and business
justification to scale it up,
especially considering that
70 percent of the global
population is expected to be
living in cities by 2050.41
Example - Sharing
Business Model: Zipcar
applied digital technologies
so people can access a car at
the exact moment they need
it, without the burden and
expense of owning it
outright. The overall
environmental footprint of
this approach is much
smaller than individual car
ownership. Zipcar was so
successful that Avis bought
the company in 2013 and
will likely scale it up.
Ecosystem Focus – Strategies to Drive Collaborative Solutions
6. Create Shared Value - Capitalism is
getting a bad rap these days. But where
it’s practiced with positive values, it has
proven to be the most
effective vehicle for human
collaboration ever invented.
As Professor Edward
Freeman of the University
of Virginia puts it:
Capitalism is how we
cooperate together to create value no
one of us could do alone.”42
A growing number of people
are expecting more of
capitalism. They expect
business to create “shared
value,” which is a more
constructive and endearing
role because all
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stakeholders benefit from the business
activities. No single stakeholder group
gains at the expense of others. By not
making trade-offs between stakeholders,
it forces companies to be more creative
which leads to breakthrough
performance.
While maximizing “shared value” takes a
company closer to sustainability than
maximizing “shareholder value” (which
is a profit maximizing goal), some argue
that it is still a limiting concept. A more
progressive concept is transformation of
a company’s value proposition. As Paul
Polman of Unilever puts it: “The
concept of shared value is good but I
think it is a post-rationalization of not
getting in trouble with society”.43
Even stockholders are pushing
companies to look beyond just the
stockholder’s perspective, some because
they believe it’s the right thing to do and
others because they believe it is a wise
business decision for the long run. A
recent study looked at the financial
returns of firms that align the interests
of all stakeholders in such a way that no
single stakeholder group gains at the
expense of others. They found that the
returns of these “firms of endearment”
were over eight times greater than the
returns of the Standard & Poor’s 500
over a ten year period ending June 30,
2006.44 By not trading off different
stakeholder interests and by striving for
win-win-win solutions, a firm invokes
the power of imagination thus
stimulating more innovation and value
creation and the potential for scale.
7. Form Partnerships – Some of the
global challenges that represent great
business opportunities can only be
surmounted through multi-sectoral
partnerships and collaborations that
include governments.45 As governments
and NGOs start to think more in value
terms and recognize their own
limitations, their interest in collaborating
with businesses will grow. A key risk of
any collaboration is that no one
commits to driving and leading it.
Business leaders will have to gauge their
own willingness to drive collaboration
or risk losing the opportunity
altogether. There are many forms of
partnerships as shown in Figure 5.
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Figure 5: Examples of Partnership46:
TYPE OF
PARTNERSHIP
DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES
Company/Company Where companies that
otherwise compete against
each other collaborate to
access expertise and
resources and share risks.
This is also known as “co-
opetition.”
Ford and Toyota to
develop advanced
hybrid system for light
trucks
US Postal Service, UPS
and FedEx to reduce
carbon footprint
The Green Grid for IT
server farms
Company/NGO This has been the most
common type of
collaboration. It has been
driven by corporate social
responsibility (CSR).
Coca-Cola and World
Wildlife Federation
Starbucks and Conservation
International
Home Depot and
Habitat for Humanity
Single Industry Where public, private and
NGO actors from a single
industry partner to address
common issues. This type
of collaboration is
becoming more common.
Sustainable Apparel
Coalition
Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition
The Mining Association
of Canada, Towards
Sustainable Mining
Multi-industry Multi-actor partnerships
form across industry
boundaries to tackle a
common issue.
The Plant PET
Technology
Collaborative
Forest Stewardship Council
United States Climate
Action Partnership
Sustainable Packaging Coalition
In some cases, it makes sense for
companies to establish a joint venture to
introduce a product or service into the
marketplace. In this scenario, the
partners operate as a coordinated
network with each company
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focusing on its unique strengths. The
partners move technologies and roles to
those best able to implement them. For
example, a large incumbent business
may link with a smaller company that
has a disruptive technology. Take the
case of Waste Management
Company. After failing to introduce a
recycling program of its own, Waste
Management partnered with
Recyclebank to implement a highly
successful recycling program in the U.S.
The combination of Waste
Management’s curbside collection
infrastructure, the largest in America,
with Recyclebank’s online education and
behavior change platform, accelerated
the growth of both companies. After
only one year together, 22 million
residential customers gained access to
the Recyclebank rewards-for-recycling
program and 179 million pounds of
material was recycled.47
Collaboration continues to be viewed as one of
the few models that could catalyze solutions
to the sustainable development challenges that
we face at the speed and scale we need.48
8. Pursue Open Innovation – In a world
where the challenges are complex and
knowledge is widely distributed, making
the boundary between a company and
its operating environment more
permeable can enrich the innovation
process and accelerate progress. By
opening up their “jewel box” of ideas
and technologies,
partners use their
collective intelligence
and knowledge to
develop sustainability
solutions with wide
market appeal.
They can build trust
quickly if they have
shared values and
goals and they
communicate openly.
Take the case of AkzoNobel, a large
chemical company. It has thirty supplier
agreements across its value chain
focused on getting more value from
fewer resources.49 The company found
that progress accelerated when it shifted
from a transactional, compliance-driven
approach with its vendors to a
collaborative approach that aims to
rethink business processes from end to
end.
9. Create Circular Economies – In a
circular economy, products do not
quickly become waste,
but are reused to
extract their
maximum value before
safely and productively
returning to the
biosphere.
Business leaders can
collaborate with each
other to create
circular economies
that generate more
value from each unit of resources used
while boosting growth in a
sustainable direction. With this
approach, one company’s “waste” is
another company’s feedstock.
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Large-scale examples exist today,
including anaerobic digestion of
household waste and apparel recovery.
One study estimates the full potential of
the circular economy in consumer
goods, for example, to be as much as
$700 billion (US) in global materials
savings alone.50 Large enterprises have
the power to facilitate the redesign of
entire value chains into circular
economies. Over time, the market is
likely to systematically reward
companies with an edge in circular
business practices.51
10. Find Like-Minded Investors –
Sustainability companies, big or small,
need to find like-minded investors who
can provide the “patient capital” that is
needed to introduce transformative
business models. Fortunately, a growing
class of investors looks for companies
that create long-term value.
Canada’s Social Investment Organization
reports that responsible investment (RI)
assets in Canada continue to climb,
showing growth in virtually every major
market segment and outpacing growth
of total assets under management.
Assets managed under sustainable and
responsible investment guidelines in
Canada grew by 16 percent between
June 30, 2010 and December 31, 2011.
By comparison, total assets under
management grew by 9 percent in the
same time period. RI assets now
account for 20 percent of total assets
under management in the financial
industry, representing $600.9 billion.
This investment trend bodes well for
businesses that need capital to scale
sustainability.52
An example of a socially responsible
investment management company is
Generation Investment
Management LLP (GIM), a company
co-founded by Al Gore, former Vice
President of the U.S. At a recent
conference, GIM surveyed a group of
Chief Investment Officers (CIOs) on
their investment planning horizons. The
company found that only 20 percent of
CIOs said that their investment-planning
horizon was one year or more and 55
percent said it was for a calendar
quarter or less, a point of view that
undermines C-Suite attempts to solve
society’s most difficult issues.53 More
consideration needs to be given to
investing for the long-term in order to
manage the risk of business disruption.
GIM advocates for the issuance of
loyalty-driven securities that rewards
investors who hold a company’s shares
for a minimum number of years.
Figure 6: Solve for X
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Scaling Strategies for Small Business
Entrepreneurs are more apt than big
business to develop the radical solutions
that will solve the world’s most intractable
problems. The power of entrepreneurs to
solve problems is being tapped by Solve for
X, which provides a forum to encourage and
amplify technology-based “moonshot
thinking” and collaboration. (see Figure 6).54
The forums create the conditions that bring
forth the best from people collaborating and
co-creating solutions for tomorrow.
But taking an opportunity from concept to
execution can be an enormous challenge.
Entrepreneurs in the sustainability space face
the same challenges as any entrepreneur but
have the additional challenge of overcoming
barriers to scaling sustainability solutions.
On the whole, the big business strategies for
scaling a sustainability venture apply to small
to medium sized enterprises as well. But,
while small business has the advantages of
greater flexibility and nimbleness, it generally
struggles to access funding and markets as it
develops its technology or solution.
Scaling strategies for entrepreneurs centre
on successfully navigating the technology
commercialization cycle, establishing a
strong organization, and getting a firm
foothold in the marketplace.
Organizational Focus – Strategies to Build a Strong, Fit-for-Purpose Team
For typical leaders of a sustainability
business, especially if they are the founder,
the personal mission and the organizational
mission are integrated. Such leaders
consciously shape the company’s vision,
policies, and operations to address broader
societal needs. Profits are not seen as the
end goal but viewed as necessary to keep
the business going. For them, it is critical
that the mission outlives themselves. These
individuals recognize that effective
leadership is an “inside job,” as Casey
Sheahan, CEO of Patagonia put it.55 They
focus on developing their inner qualities so
they can be better leaders and influencers of
others. Taken together, these aspects
describe a leader who is authentic and
authenticity attracts the talented employees,
partners, and supporters needed to navigate
the commercialization cycle.
It’s noteworthy that many leaders of
innovative companies in the sustainability
space consciously nurture a positive team
culture. Take Whole Foods Market, for
example. Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole
Foods, says that when you build the culture,
you build the strength and immunity of the
company. Culture sustains the mission of
the company; it makes it real. A healthy
culture creates a virtuous circle of growth
as employees are empowered to take risks
and innovate. He gives the Whole Foods
formula: Mission plus values practiced over
time equals culture.56
Culture eats strategy for breakfast. -Peter Drucker.57
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Ecosystem Focus – Strategies to Forge Strategic Relationships
Entrepreneurs in the sustainability space inevitably face decisions about when, where, why, and
with whom they should do business. Forging strategic relationships with big businesses or other
players is often necessary to successfully commercialize a new product or service. But SMEs have
some special considerations when partnering with larger organizations:
What resources or capabilities do I need
from a partner?
Who are my company’s allies? Who has
supported my company in the past?
How should I protect my company’s
intellectual property?
How can I mitigate the risk of “putting all my
eggs” in the bigger partner’s basket?
Can I accept the risk that partnering with a
big business may slow down or bog down the
successful commercialization of my
technology?
What is the optimal coupling strength? How
do I maintain flexibility?
How do I avoid being “held up” by the big
company? What leverage do I have?
Like any start-up, sustainability
entrepreneurs must navigate the difficult
technology commercialization cycle.
However, a growing cadre of consumers,
incumbent businesses, investor groups,
NGOs and government agencies are looking
for sustainability solutions and will support
and collaborate with promising new
ventures. Having said this, small business
owners need to be aware of the dangers and
pitfalls of doing business with larger
organizations – they may have different, and
perhaps hidden, agendas.
Summary of Scaling Strategies
Internally Focused Strategies
1. Have Higher Order Purpose – To appeal to tomorrow’s customers, companies need to
deliver net positive value to society. Customers are attracted to companies with a
purpose beyond maximizing profits.
2. Lead Differently – Leaders of sustainability businesses are “servant leaders” able to
nurture a positive team culture, galvanize employees and partners around a noble
purpose, and build bridges between people and organizations.
3. Eliminate Environmental Footprint – Pursue opportunities to eliminate environmental
impacts associated with all stages of a product or service’s life span, from cradle-to-
cradle across the organization and supply chains.
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4. Satisfy People’s Deepest Yearnings – Avoid manipulating people to buy more stuff, which
feeds consumerism. Businesses that respect people as whole human beings and are able
satisfy their deepest yearnings are remarkable and create a following.
5. Redesign Business Models – Innovation of business models can unlock opportunities to
create more value for customers and stakeholders while solving multiple sustainability
challenges. Examples are business models that transform products into a service, create
circular economies, or give people platforms for action.
Externally Focused Strategies
6. Create Shared Value –The more constructive and endearing role of business is to create
“shared value” (versus shareholder value) that benefits all stakeholders at the same time.
By not making trade-offs between stakeholders, it forces companies to be more creative
which leads to breakthrough performance.
7. Form Partnerships – Some of the global challenges that represent great business
opportunities can only be surmounted through multi-sectoral collaborations that include
governments. Joint ventures that move technologies and roles to the partners best able
to implement them can get their product to market faster.
8. Pursue Open Innovation – In a world where the challenges are complex and knowledge is
widely distributed, making the boundary between a company and its environment more
permeable can enrich the innovation process and accelerate progress.
9. Create Circular Economies – Drive a shift from linear “take-make-discard” economies to
circular economies where products do not quickly become waste. Create circular
economies, involving other entities where it makes sense, to generate more value from
each unit of resources and to boost growth in a sustainable direction.
10. Find Like-Minded Investors – An unrelenting focus on short-term financial results has
proven counter-productive to developing the kind of solutions needed for the world’s
biggest challenges. Sustainability companies need to find like-minded investors with
“patient capital.”
Change Strategy Scaling a sustainability solution can be an incredibly complex endeavor. The proponent must
mobilize an array of inter-dependent ecosystem players to create a supportive environment. The
process can involve the organizational world, the consumer world, the regulatory/government
world, and the economic/financial world.
It helps for the actors to have a change strategy as they embark on the scaling journey. A good
way to start is by creating an ecosystem map of all the players and environmental conditions
affecting the system. Mapping the ecosystem will help to identify the leverage points for change.
Here are some questions to address:
Where in the sustainability space do we want to play?
What is the make-up of the existing and of the ideal ecosystem? Who are the players?
What kind of business model will be most effective in this ecosystem?
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What environmental conditions need changing to accelerate adoption of our solution? Is
it a regulation or policy? Is it new infrastructure?
What is the role of each player in the successful commercialization of our solution?
How do we make or influence the needed changes? In what order should the changes be
made?
In which geographic location or market should we start the journey? What are the
criteria for expanding to new locations or markets?
Ultimately, a scaling strategy is a learning strategy. It is virtually impossible to anticipate all of the
issues that may be encountered in the journey. It is important to learn something from each step
and make adjustments when needed.
Conclusion The strategies we’ve set out offer possibilities for scaling up your sustainability enterprise.
To succeed you will need to be an advocate for change both inside your organization and
externally with ecosystem players. Become the Chief Evangelist for your solution. Invite the key
players to the table and show the benefits for all involved. We are at a turning point. This is the
time to step up, because a critical mass of players interested in collaborating for change is
emerging.
In the consumer realm, people are yearning for products and services that contribute to more
sustainable lifestyles. They may not always be able to articulate what they want, but they will
know it when the see it. More than ever before, business leaders need to communicate more
deeply with citizens and collaborate with other players in the system because the solutions of the
future will emerge at the intersection of the different actors in the system.
The business leaders who are talking to their customers, vendors, government agencies and
other players about the new opportunities are on their way to reaping the rewards while helping
the world to cross the sustainability chasm.
Business leaders are uniquely positioned to influence, encourage and inspire other players in the
system to make enabling changes. This is not to absolve politicians from their responsibility. They
need to demonstrate more leadership, in concert with business and citizen groups, to forge
collaborative solutions. But with national governments pre-occupied by other priorities and
lagging in sustainability performance,58 business leaders have an opportunity, if not an urgent need,
to drive the transition.
A big shift is underway. Society needs business to solve global challenges and new data are
showing business leaders there is a business case for doing good. Scaling sustainability solutions at
speed is within grasp. By moving aggressively forward on the sustainability journey you will ensure
the survival of your enterprise, knit yourself into the web of the newly emerging sustainable
economy, and contribute to the triple bottom line that benefits your shareholders, your
stakeholders and the planet. Seize the moment – carpe diem.
© 2013 The Zethof Consulting Group. All rights reserved
Endnotes
1 The UN Global Compact - Accenture CEO Study on Sustainability 2013. [online] Available at: http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/ungc-ceo-study/Documents/pdf/13-1739_UNGC%20report_Final_FSC3.pdf [Accessed 10 October 2013]
2 Melaver, M., 2009. Living Above the Store. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company.
3 Credit to Jeff Seabright, Vice President for Environment and Water Resources, The Coca Cola Company.
4 Abbott, R., 2009. Conscious Endeavours: Essays on Business, Society and The Journey to Sustainability. Scriptorium/Palimpsest Press.
5 Grant, J., 2010. Co-opportunity: Join up for a Sustainable, Resilient, Prosperous World. United Kingdom, John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
6 Clancy, H., 2013. Dell’s next big sustainability goal requires collaboration. [online] Available at: http://www.greenbiz.com/print/54878 [Accessed 21 October 2013]
7 Volans, 2013. Breakthrough Business Leaders, Market Revolutions. [online] Available
at: www.breakthroughcapitalism.com/files/volans-breakthrough-market-report.pdf
[Accessed 8 August 2013]
8 Thurm, R., 2012. Innovation Towards a Zero Impact Growth Economy. The Zeronauts Symposium, Deloitte and Volans, The Netherlands. [online] Available at: www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Netherlands/Local%20Assets/Documents/NL/Denktank/Duurzaamheid/nl_nl_zeronauts_ralphthurm.pdf [Accessed 9 July 2013]
9 Global Reporting Initiative. [online] Available at: www.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx [Accessed 8 August 2013]
10 The UN Global Compact - Accenture CEO Study on Sustainability 2013. [online]
Available at: http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/ungc-ceo-study/Documents/pdf/13-1739_UNGC%20report_Final_FSC3.pdf [Accessed 10 October 2013]
11 Ibid
12 Goldsmith, R. Goldsmith Technology Commercialization Model. Illinois Small Business Development Center. [online] Available at: www.centerpointgsu.com/technology-innovation/what-we-do/strategy-and-execution-support/goldsmith-technology-commercialization-model/ [Accessed 12 July 2013]
13 Ryan, E., 2013. Activating a Business Through Purpose. Conscious Capitalism 2013 Conference. [online] Available at: www.consciouscapitalism.org/cc2013/video#video_player [Accessed 16 July 2013]
14 Lee, M. and Coulter, C., 2012. Down to Business: Leading at Rio +20 and Beyond. [online] SustainAbility and GlobeScan, Available at: www.globescan.com/commentary-and-analysis/papers-and-reports.html [Accessed 16 July 2013]
15 Ibid
16 Casey, T, 2013. Sir Richard Branson’s Plan B for Sustainable Business. Triple Pundit [online] Available at: www.triplepundit.com/2013/06/richard-branson-b-team-for-sustainable-business [Accessed 16 July 2013]
17 Gollom, Mark, 2013. Why Arianna Huffington says there’s more to Business than Profit. CBC News [online] Available at: www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/06/19/profit-corporate-social-responsibility-b-team.html [Accessed 3 July 2013]
18 Volans, 2013. Breakthrough Business Leaders, Market Revolutions. [online] Available
at: www.breakthroughcapitalism.com/files/volans-breakthrough-market-report.pdf
[Accessed 8 August 2013]
19 Bloom, P. and Dees, J., 2008. Cultivate your Ecosystem. Stanford Social Innovation Review. [online] Available at: www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/cultivate_your_ecosystem [Accessed 10 July 2013]
20 Zeschky, J., 2013. B.C. Brewers Gamble on Hard Graft and Craft Beer. The Province Newspaper. [online] Available at: www.theprovince.com/business/smallbusiness/Microbrewery+boom+Gambling+hard+graft+craft+beer/8436615/story.html [Accessed 23 July 2013]
21 Government of British Columbia, 2012. Province announces Incentives for B.C. Breweries. [online] Available at: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2012/11/province-announces-incentives-for-bc-breweries.html [Accessed 12 August 2013]
22 Iansiti, M. and Levien, R., 2004. The Keystone Advantage: What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems Mean for Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability. Harvard Business Press Books.
23 Barrett Values Centre. Culture in Organizations & Nations. [online] Available at: www.valuescentre.com/culture/ [Accessed 30 July 2013]
24 Keeble, J. and Eckerle, K., 2013. Engaging Tomorrow’s Consumer. World Economic Forum Sustainable Consumption Initiative. [online] Available at: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_RC_EngagingTomorrowsConsumer_Report_2013.pdf [Accessed 26 June 2013]
25 Ibid
26 Ibid
27 Keeble, J. and Eckerle, K., 2013. Engaging Tomorrow’s Consumer. World Economic Forum Sustainable Consumption Initiative. [online] Available at: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_RC_EngagingTomorrowsConsumer_Report_2013.pdf [Accessed 26 June 2013]
28 Harris-Confino, J., 2013. The Dangers of Stereotyping Millennials in Sustainability. [online] Available at www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/danger-stereotyping-millennials-sustainability [Accessed 23 August 2013]
29 Sheahan, C., 2013. Conscious Leadership is an Inside Job. Conscious Capitalism 2013 Conference. [online] Available at: www.consciouscapitalism.org/cc2013/video#video_player [Accessed 16 July 2013]
30 Ibid
31 Sheahan, C., 2013. Conscious Leadership is an Inside Job. Conscious Capitalism 2013 Conference. [online] Available at: www.consciouscapitalism.org/cc2013/video#video_player [Accessed 16 July 2013]
32 Hanifan, G., 2013. Sustainable Supply Chain: Why it is Good Business. Accenture’s Sustainability 24, 2013 Conference. [online] Available at: https://mp162522.cdn.mediaplatform.com/162522/wc/4000/8535/22665/Archive/default.htm [Accessed 2 July 2013]
33 Confino, J., 2013. Consumers Believe Brands can have a Positive Impact but are Failing to do so. Guardian Sustainable Business. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/consumers-brands-positive-impact-failing [Accessed 9 October 2013]
34 Ibid
35 Ibid
36 Accenture, Energizing Global Growth: Understanding the Changing Consumer. [online] Available at: www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/us-en/landing-pages/energizing-global-growth/Energizing-Global-Growth-Final.pdf [Accessed 26 June 2013]
37 Ibid
38 Kraaijenhagen, C., 2013. The Circle Economy. The Zeronauts Symposium, Deloitte and Volans, The Netherlands. [online] Available at: www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Netherlands/Local%20Assets/Documents/NL/Denktank/Duurzaamheid/nl_nl_zeronauts_christiaankraaijenhagen.pdf [Accessed 4 July 2013]
39 Gillies, R., 2013. Sustainable Consumption: Engaging Tomorrow’s Consumer. Accenture’s Sustainability 24, 2013 Conference. [online] Available at: https://mp162522.cdn.mediaplatform.com/162522/wc/4000/8535/22663/Archive/default.htm [Accessed 2 July 2013]
40 PEW Research Center, 2010. Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next. Confident, Connected, Open to Change. [online] Available at: www.pewresearch.org/millennials/ [Accessed 26 June 2013]
41 World Health Organization. Urban Population Growth. [online] Available at: www.who.int/gho/urban_health/situation_trends/urban_population_growth_text/en/ [Accessed 8 August 2013]
42 Freeman, E., 2012. Creative Capitalism Elective - Darden School of Business. [online] Available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VJMYu-_2TM [Accessed 5 July 2013]
43 Paul Polman interview with Jo Confino
44 Sisodia, R., Wolfe, D. and Sheth, J., 2007. Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose. Wharton School Publishing.
45 Lee, M. and Coulter, C., 2012. Down to Business: Leading at Rio +20 and Beyond. [online] SustainAbility and GlobeScan, Available at: www.globescan.com/commentary-and-analysis/papers-and-reports.html [Accessed 16 July 2013]
46 Coulter, C., Erikson, J., and Buckingham, F., 2012. Collaborating for a Sustainable Future: A GlobeScan/SustainAbility Survey. [online] Available at: www.globescan.com/commentary-and-analysis/press-releases/press-releases-2012/252-collaborating-for-a-sustainable-future.html [Accessed 16 July 2013]
47 Recyclebank, 2013. Waste Management and Recyclebank Mark First Year of Collaboration. Recyclebank Press Release, March 20, 2013. [online] Available at: www.recyclebank.com/corporate-info/newsroom/press-releases/219 [Accessed 31 July 2013]
48 Ibid
49 Veneman, A., 2013. Sustainable Supply Chain: Why it is Good Business. Accenture’s Sustainability 24, 2013 Conference. [online] Available at: https://mp162522.cdn.mediaplatform.com/162522/wc/4000/8535/22665/Archive/default.htm [Accessed 2 July 2013]
50 Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013. Towards the Circular Economy: Opportunities for the Consumer Goods Sector. [online] Available at: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/business/reports/ce2013 [Accessed 31 July 2013]
51 Ibid
52 Social Investment Organization, 2013. Canadian and Global RI Trends – Canadian responsible investment assets up 16% since 2010: new report. [online] Available at: http://www.socialinvestment.ca/sri-review/ [Accessed 22 October 2013]
53 Generation Investment Management LLP, 2012. Sustainable Capitalism. [online] Available at: www.generationim.com/media/pdf-generation-sustainable-capitalism-v1.pdf [Accessed 6 August 2013]
54 Solve for X: A forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and collaboration. [online] Available at: www.solveforx.com [Accessed 8 August 2013]
55 Sheahan, C., 2013. Conscious Leadership is an Inside Job. Conscious Capitalism 2013 Conference. [online] Available at: www.consciouscapitalism.org/cc2013/video#video_player [Accessed 16 July 2013]
56 Robb, W., 2013. Bringing a Conscious Culture to Life. Conscious Capitalism 2013 Conference. [online] Available at: www.consciouscapitalism.org/cc2013/video#video_player [Accessed 16 July 2013]
57 A quote widely attributed to management expert Peter Drucker.
58 Lee, M. and Coulter, C., 2012. Down to Business: Leading at Rio +20 and Beyond. [online] SustainAbility and GlobeScan, Available at: www.globescan.com/commentary-and-analysis/papers-and-reports.html [Accessed 16 July 2013]
This white paper is provided courtesy of The Zethof Consulting Group, which provides
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inspire and support a shift to a desired future.
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Acknowledgments:
Design – Mary Katharine Ross, Document Diva
Editing – Ellen Godfrey
Artwork – Michelle Winkel, Unfolding Solutions, http://unfoldingsolutions.ca
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