Chapter 2 - Standards of Sustainability

Part 7 - People + Planet + Profit

The challenge of building a sustainable future is clear. The role of businesses, large and small, in that future is fundamentally important. This importance arises from the need to provide goods and services to an increasing human population in an arena of diminishing natural resources, and an already degraded natural environment.

Adaptive business models and new accountability, new drivers in marketplace dynamics, peak resource limitations, and new standards for products and processes are mission critical components of today’s business platforms. As well, consumers need to fully understand the daily choices they make today, stand as a foundation for the future. With their wealth, and with their power, businesses ― the engines of commerce ― have the ability to accelerate sustainable human progress, or deny a safe and secure future to many of the world’s peoples. 

The critical balance between sustaining a profitable business and developing sustainably requires rethinking of our shared values and our shared future, and mastering the techniques and technologies that need to arise from this current challenge for humanity. This is a true entrepreneurial challenge, perhaps our greatest ever. After all, we are building, together, a new and better tomorrow.

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Reading

  1. Strategies for Implementing Sustainability: Five Leadership Challenges. Crews, D.
    SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075); Spring 2010, Vol. 75 Issue 2, p15-21, 7p.