How likely are you to achieve a major goal without being clear about what you are trying to accomplish? More and more companies are embracing "sustainability" as an explicit goal. Successfully moving toward this goal requires a clear definition of just what is being sought.

As a society, our understanding of sustainability is new and still coming into focus. Increasingly, the term is used to refer to a specific, desirable state of our socioecological system, one that can be "sustained" over time. A sustainability strategy, therefore, is very different from traditional environmental management. While the latter emphasizes a process of continual environmental improvement, the ultimate destination is typically left undefined. In contrast, sustainability challenges a company to set a specific goal and then continuously align its strategy and operations toward that end.

Many readers are familiar with The Natural Step, a science-based framework for sustainability. It describes nature as a sun-driven recycling system that over the course of evolution has achieved a dynamic balance between resources and waste. Modern industrial society interferes with that balance in three ways. It:

1. floods the system with materials that over much of Earth’s history had been gradually isolated deep in the planet’s crust;
   
   
2. converts resources into products that nature cannot readily assimilate; and
   
   
3. damages the infrastructure of the recycling system itself (e.g., reducing the amount of green surface, destabilizing the system by eliminating biodiversity).

As this balance shifts, resources decrease and waste accumulates in the system. This trend is clearly not sustainable, and will increasingly limit society’s room to maneuver.

In its simplest terms, sustainability means not turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources. Where are we today? Mathis Wackernagel, developer of the Ecological Footprint, has calculated that if everyone’s consumption were to match that of the average American, we would require five additional planets the size of the Earth to provide sufficient resources and assimilate all the waste. Worldwide, we already are exceeding sustainable limits, and the extent of this "overshoot" is increasing rather than decreasing. Wackernagel illustrates the integral relationship between social and environmental goals when he defines sustainability as "securing people’s quality of life within the means of nature."

The Business Case for Sustainability

Why focus on sustainability as a business goal? The environment is the context in which all businesses operate, and the facts of nature create restrictions and limitations with major economic consequences. Companies are realizing that significant economic benefit can be gained by learning to operate in a way that does not put the business on a collision course with these immutable laws of nature. For a business wanting to make skillful investments, the crucial thing is to direct its investments toward the future market. This requires minimizing those investments that are not in sync with the principals of sustainability, and taking advantage of market opportunities to provide solutions to the world’s growing need for clean and efficient products and services.

How do we get there? Corresponding to the three ways society currently interferes with nature, The Natural Step describes three minimum, non-overlapping "system conditions" that must be not be violated if this relationship is to become sustainable. A necessary fourth condition is included: "We must become efficient and just in our use of resources." Justice assures not only an attractive future, but also the social stability necessary to bring about the necessary changes.

This is not a luxury or "simply" an ethical consideration. For example, shifting manufacturing to areas of the world where poverty can be leveraged for environmental compromise is not merely unethical, but also counterproductive. For example, scientists have recently discovered that plumes of industrial pollutants from Asian manufacturing facilities are now significantly degrading air quality along the western coast of North America.

Strategic Planning Using The Natural Step Framework

The Natural Step framework offers a method for strategic planning called "backcasting" to align a company's long-term vision with its current actions and plans. When backcasting, a company first analyzes its existing situation, examining current operations, products, and services to determine where it is most out of alignment with the basic principles of sustainability.

Next, the company envisions an ideal future in which it operates in accordance with the system conditions. This includes imagining how the marketplace of the future will view its products and services, and how its core competencies can be best positioned to service that market. This can be a tremendous source of creativity and innovation.

Finally, the company designs an action plan that will move it from its current reality to its long-term vision. It takes advantage of activities that are easy to do right away and that have immediate payoff, while ensuring that each short-term action serves as a platform for longer-term goals.

There is another reason business should care about sustainability, one that transcends the economic argument. Business is now the single largest force for change on the face of the Earth. Along with that power comes a responsibility to ensure that the planet remains hospitable for future generations.

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Susan Burns is principal, and Steve Goldfinger is senior consultant, of Natural Strategies Inc., a management consulting firm helping companies apply sustainability principles. They can be reached at 415-485-4995 or www.naturalstrategies.com.