In a recent conversation with students from the University of Oregon’s Center for Sustainable Business Practices I was asked why do leaders often have so much trouble integrating sustainability into their organizations. A big part of the problem is that they are trying to integrate sustainability into their organizations.
First, most leaders don’t have a clear idea of what sustainability is. For some it is waste reduction. Others think in terms of giving back. For many, it is being “green”–whatever that means. For leaders of large organizations “social responsibility” is still a nebulous buzzword. In application “sustainability” often boils down to what a particular leader values.
Second, trying to bolt, inject, weave or otherwise attach “sustainability” to an organization is, more often than not, a recipe for failure. Leaders who are leading “sustainable” organizations frequently don’t even use the word. One leader I know just calls it good business.
So, what to do? First, don’t get hung up on your carbon footprint. Sustainability is a way of doing business. For it to work, as a leader, as an organization, you’ve got to live it. There are a lot of people out there trying to make the business case for sustainability. It’s a hard sell. Why? Because you’re trying to sell it.
Just be it. What you want to be doing as a leader is developing your capacity to see your business as more than a linear growth machine and helping other leaders in and outside of your business to do the same. This, depends on you. Who you are. And, who you are in relation to what sustains us. Simply, we sustain our selves by sustaining what sustains us. The foundations of a healthy environment, a just and vibrant society and a robust, resilient economy are the relationships we, as leaders, create.
Every person we meet, every deal we make, every product and service we develop and design, every talk we give is an opportunity. We can treat it transactionally: we get what we want and walk away. We can approach it interactively: it is an opportunity for mutual learning and growth. We can recognize the potential for transformation: Through the power of who we are and what we see and do we can create relationships that profoundly impact the way people see, think and act as businesspeople and consumers. We can help them make choices that are sustainable, that sustain that which sustains us.
When we get good at that, sustainability is no longer an initiative, project or management fad. It is an expression of the hard work we’ve done to grow our selves and our organizations in ways that make every transaction at least interactive and, potentially, transforming.
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