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TripleBottomLine of your Sustainable business

Written by: Stefan Doering

Article Overview: New York City, where I live, is going through a rough patch these days. As you know, some of Wall Street’s biggest are falling all around us. Yet it is exactly as it should be. Why? The market is correcting itself from our unsustainable ways. Sustainability is really all about the triple-bottom-line: people, profits and planet. Here’s how it applies to New York’s falling giants: What is your company's triple-bottle-line, in creating a sustainable business.

TripleBottomLine of your Sustainable business

New York City, where I live, is going through a rough patch these days. As you know, some of Wall Street’s biggest are falling all around us.

Yet it is exactly as it should be. Why?

The market is correcting itself from our unsustainable ways.

Sustainability is really all about the triple-bottom-line: people, profits and planet. Here’s how it applies to New York’s falling giants:

People: are not adapting or adjusting to the changes in our environment. We are not reinventing ourselves around a more global economy, resources of energy, population increases, and technology changes. Whether they are people who run small companies or global corporations, if they do not adapt, the business will ultimately run into the ground. Just look at GM, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Bear Sterns, and Citigroup, not to mention Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae.

Profits: are coming from unchecked ambitions. This is not just from the leaders of the above-mentioned companies. It is people like you and me as well. We demand greater and greater returns from an ever-shrinking pool of resources spread over a growing population in a more and more globally-competitive economy. We want to invest less for larger and larger returns. The pressure on our businesses to compete and generate “acceptable” profits creates a culture of mismanagement looking for more and more aggressive growth strategies with faster and faster short-term results. Sounds like an addiction, doesn’t it?

Planet: are driven by people demanding these profits and reaping havoc on our earth. Instead of respecting the Native American Iroquois’ Great Law which states, "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations", we borrow from our future generations… in almost every conceivable way imaginable. The most obvious results of this are seen in our energy crisis, changes in climate, recent storms and floodings, melting polar caps, and food shortages.

And while we’re addressing unsustainable behavior in business— from small to global— sustainability (or lack of it) applies to any “ecosystem” in life: ranging from sports and athletes, to relationships between husband and wife, politics within countries, education in our schools, and the healthcare for our loved ones.

Just as with business “ecosystems” being run unsustainably, when we do not stay on top of our game, nurture our relationships, elect responsible politicians, expand our minds or keep our bodies healthy, these “ecosystems” make way for the stronger to step in.

Now here’s the good news: we entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs (entrepreneurs operating within large corporations) are at a serious advantage for stepping in. For we are the innovators who keep the pulse of what is going on. As such, we are much more likely to be able to adapt and adjust to the planet’s changing tides. We can move and navigate more freely than our more traditional, larger and mostly inflexible corporate brothers.

Those of us who adapt quickly will thrive, and those of us who do not will dive.

And is that not perfect?


Action Steps for the Week:

Review your company’s triple-bottom-line. Are your actions sustainable? Where are you cutting corners to make a short-term profit?

Look to see how you can raise the bar for:

· People: how can you take care of your stakeholders— those directly involved in your business (customers, vendors, investors, community, family, neighbors, etc.)

· Planet: where are you borrowing from the future of our planet? From our children’s well-being? Are you paying attention to the impact you are having to our planet’s future and well-being? Where can you improve this?

· Profit: where might you be cutting corners to make a quick profit? Where is the value in what you offer? Real value? What can you do to amp this up and contribute more value for the same amount of money?

Related Articles
  Moving Forward: International Financial Institutions
  SME's - do you want business from government?
  Increase Sales by Selling Sustainable Solutions that Deliver Measurable Results instead of Benefits
  Introduction: Fiscal Dimensions of Sustainable Development
  Examples of Sustainable Development

Article Tags: aggressive growth, bear sterns, economy resources, energy crisis, fanny mae, floodings, food shortages, future generations, global corporations, global economy, growth strategies, lehman brothers, melting polar caps, merrill lynch, population increases, reaping havoc, rough patch, seven generations, triple bottom line, washington mutual



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