What Is Sustainability? 6 Approaches to a Sustainable Business Strategy

The three pillars of sustainability—environmental, economic, and social—have quickly risen to high-level priorities for businesses of all sizes and industries. Sustainability is not only a matter of risk management for organizations, although that is still the most significant driver of sustainability initiatives. Potential upside for businesses that embrace sustainability strategies and practices also include greater efficiency, cost savings, new business opportunities, and brand uplift.

What Is Sustainability?

Sustainability refers to business practices that are designed to sustain ecological, human, and economic health over the long term. The idea behind sustainability is that ecological, human, and capital resources are in limited supply, so it benefits people and organizations to use them thoughtfully, conserve them, and consider the consequences of their choices and actions on those resources and society. The aim of sustainability is to meet today’s business and economic needs without compromising the future.

Sustainability refers to an organization’s strategies and tactics for reducing any negative environmental, social, and economic impacts while boosting positive impacts on each respective area, leading to benefits for customers, employees, investors, communities, and society. Now that sustainability efforts have grown more mainstream, many businesses track, analyze, and report on their progress in each of these areas, sometimes using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics.

Key Takeaways

• Sustainability is a set of business strategies and tactics that consider the long-term repercussions of actions and decisions.
• There are three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic.
• Prioritizing sustainability practices is beneficial for individual businesses and society as a whole.
• Investing in sustainability best practices and establishing a suite of sustainability key performance indicators are critical to long-term success.

Sustainability Explained: How Sustainability Works

Sustainability works when individuals and organizations implement thoughtful and forward-thinking practices and processes that consider the environmental, economic, and social well-being of both the community and the planet. Implementation depends on the specifics of each situation, but a throughline for every step should be an examination of how these three elements impact each other.

For example, a manufacturing company may start with a specific assembly process. In that situation, it should examine each step, from sourcing to the factory floor to the end result. Each step should introduce thoughtful questions, such as the following:

• Can we source materials from a local and ethical company?
• Can we implement reusable storage for materials?
• Can we reduce labor waste and resource usage in this process?
• Can we create more ergonomic ways for staff to accomplish tasks?

Implementation may reveal surprising ways to create sustainable efforts. In the example above, ergonomic choices can improve employee efficiency and safety, which reduces mistakes and related wastage while also improving community accessibility; those combine into a better bottom line.

Why Is Sustainability Important to Businesses?

Sustainability has evolved in recent years from a nice-to-have to a business imperative increasingly embedded in the strategies and operations of businesses of all shapes and sizes. Indeed, 90% of companies either have or are developing a formal strategy to manage corporate ESG practices, according to a Morningstar Sustainalytics survey.

The importance of sustainability efforts has grown due to the very real impacts of climate fluctuations, diminishing natural resources, and increasing demands for energy on business operations and supply chains. Examples include diminished shipping capacity on European waterways impacted by drought and heat waves shutting down manufacturing facilities in China. In the U.S., the demand for power to support artificial intelligence (AI) models has led to the possible reopening of nuclear power plants.

Consequently, sustainability has gone from an expense to an investment with strong returns. When asked about the impact of sustainability on long-term corporate strategy, 85% of respondents to a survey conducted by the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing said it was primarily (53%) or partly (32%) a value-creation opportunity. Another reason sustainability has evolved into a business must-have is that customers and employees care about it deeply. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of people reported high levels of concern about sustainability, and 50% said sustainability was one of their top four purchase criteria, according to a Bain survey of 23,000 consumers. On the employee side, 69% of employed adults said they wanted their companies to invest in sustainability efforts, including reducing carbon, using renewable energy, and minimizing waste, according to a Deloitte Consumer Center survey.

Investors also care about the sustainability stance of businesses, with more than 70% of individual investors believing that strong sustainability practices lead to higher returns, and over half said they plan to increase their allocations to sustainable investments in the next year, according to another 2024 Morgan Stanley survey. Additionally, countries around the world are developing regulations to compel businesses to report on a wide array of sustainability issues, including their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate-related risks.

Why Is Sustainability Important to Society?

While sustainability practices can benefit businesses, their impact lasts beyond any one organization—or generation. One of the earliest definitions of sustainability, developed in 1987 by the United Nations Brundtland Commission, described it as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Preserving natural resources, such as water, clean air, and wildlife, helps to ensure they remain available over the long run. Efforts to reduce pollution; improve the quality of water, air, and soil; protect biodiversity; and maintain natural habitats help to preserve the ecological systems that support life. All of this can improve society and support higher standards of living.

Similarly, improving social equity, health, and education have been shown to raise the quality of life for more people throughout a society. Sustainability practices often aim to make sure that basic human needs are met for more people, with equitable resource distribution across society.

Understanding the Three Pillars of Sustainability

Environmental sustainability is one of the three dimensions involved in securing the future needs of businesses and society; the other two are social sustainability and economic sustainability. Taken together, they aim to protect the Earth’s ecosystems, its people, and its businesses.

What Is Environmental Sustainability?

Environmental sustainability refers to business practices that help protect and preserve the natural environment and its resources. The goal is to ensure the continuity of these resources so that the planet can continue to support life as we know it.

Environmental sustainability faces numerous challenges, including climate change influenced by GHG emissions, loss of biodiversity, overuse of natural resources, pollution (of air, water, or soil), and overconsumption. Practices and policies that are known to improve environmental sustainability include procurement practices such as choosing suppliers that prioritize eco-friendly practices and ethical sourcing, selecting sustainable materials and packaging across product life cycles, and investing in energy-efficient systems to reduce GHG emissions. Businesses can reduce their environmental impact by implementing waste-reduction strategies, such as minimizing unnecessary packaging and encouraging recycling programs.

“Circular economy” business models have also emerged to support environmental sustainability. These approaches represent a fundamental reimagining of how products and materials flow through an economy. Circular economy principles focus first on eliminating waste and pollution through thoughtful design—the idea being that thoughtful anticipation of a product’s end-of-life destination from its conception enables resource-optimized design choices for sustainable value throughout the supply chain. The second key principle is to keep products and materials in active use through sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling. This closed-loop model helps businesses minimize resource consumption while supporting nature’s regenerative processes, by, for example, returning nutrients to soil. Circular economy approaches also often reveal new business opportunities and cost savings through the more efficient use of resources.

What Is Social Sustainability?

Social sustainability encompasses actions that enhance the well-being of people and communities by addressing issues such as discrimination, resource inequality, socioeconomic inequality, and governance issues, such as institutional inefficiency or corruption. To that end, social sustainability initiatives may include the introduction of better health and mental health programs, safer and more balanced work options, and the protection of basic human rights, such as access to healthcare and education.

What Is Economic Sustainability?

Economic sustainability enables long-term economic well-being and growth while balancing environmental and social stability. As a result, this pillar overlaps with the previous two. The goal of economic sustainability is to find ways to foster the development and profitability of a business (or community or country), while responsibly managing resources and supporting both environmental and community needs—in other words, to do well while doing good.

This approach includes practical initiatives involving elements such as wages, working conditions, and resource consumption. For individual businesses, economic sustainability should drive innovation in areas like energy efficiency, waste reduction, and technological advancement, while also promoting fair labor practices. Companies typically benefit with both cost savings and new business opportunities, such as reaching environmentally conscious customers or developing innovative sustainable products.

Benefits of Adopting Sustainable Business Practices

Sustainability involves optimizing resources, so it makes sense that putting sustainable practices to work can help a business operate more efficiently as well. The following are typical benefits of adopting sustainable practices:

• Increased revenue: Consumer and business customers alike continue to show increasing concern about the sustainability efforts of the companies from which they buy products and services. A recent McKinsey study, for example, found that over the prior five years, consumer products that made sustainability-related claims on their packaging accounted for 56% of all spending growth. On the corporate side, sustainability has become one of business buyers’ top three purchasing criteria, according to a Bain survey. Thirty-six percent of the B2B customers surveyed said they would leave suppliers that didn’t meet their sustainability expectations, and half of those surveyed said they would pay a premium of 5% or more for sustainability today and expected their willingness to pay to increase in the future. The takeaway? Sustainability unleashes new customer and market opportunities that drive increased revenue growth.
• Cost reduction: Sustainable business practices can help companies bolster their bottom lines by driving cost savings in several ways. For example, instituting circular economy efforts, such as switching to LED lighting, can reduce expenses and create a big impact for businesses in manufacturing and retail. Likewise, comprehensive recycling, composting, and other waste initiatives can lower costs.
• Improved resource management: Sustainable practices often increase resource efficiency, and embracing all three pillars of sustainability may also better retain workers and enjoy greater productivity. In many cases, a thorough examination will identify unexpected misuse or overuse of resources. Implementing increased digitization and automation—and employing AI capabilities for better operational efficiency—are other ways to improve their resource management while boosting sustainability.
• Supply chain resilience:  Sustainability practices can boost supply chain resilience by addressing issues that might cause disruptions, such as climate change and geopolitical instability. Seeking alternate suppliers, such as local vendors that require fewer logistics, can also boost resilience. The same practices can also lead to cost reductions. One in four European businesses with more than $250 million in sales experienced revenue growth from investments in supply chain sustainability, and 34% have seen cost savings, according to a survey by assurance and risk management firm DNV.com.
• Enhanced brand reputation: Sustainability can lead to good press or social media buzz, resulting in increased brand recognition or more interest from potential customers or investors. A brand known for sustainability may be able to get premium pricing for its products and boost overall revenue. Some employees seek employers known for sustainability, improving recruitment and retention processes.
• Increased customer loyalty: Sustainability practices can forge deeper relationships with customers, fostering increased customer loyalty and turning them into brand advocates. Sustainability-centric experiences, events, webinars, and podcasts can strengthen this connection to loyal customers who value sustainability. Some organizations even build sustainability into their loyalty programs to drive greater engagement.
• Strengthened community engagement: Social sustainability can foster stronger ties with local communities and residents. The more a business invests in local communities, the stronger those relationships can become. Sustainability programs with a community focus also invite partnerships with local organizations, businesses, and individuals that can improve brand awareness, local recruitment, and customer loyalty.
• Ethical supply chain: In recent years, many sustainability-minded businesses have started examining their supply chains. Companies with ethical and sustainable supply chains often see enhanced brand reputation and customer loyalty, as modern customers increasingly favor businesses that demonstrate social responsibility. For many businesses, sustainability efforts also help to design more ethical supply chains. The transparency of ethical supply chains helps reduce operational risks, eases regulatory compliance, and improves supplier relationships and quality control. Furthermore, ethical supply chains can boost profitability through premium pricing power with ethically conscious consumers and cost savings from more efficient, sustainable operations.
• Compliance: There is no shortage of government regulations related to environmental, social, and economic sustainability. And legislative bodies around the world continue to evolve and expand their oversight of corporate behaviors, increasingly requiring businesses to submit detailed sustainability reporting. Companies with forward-looking sustainability strategies, data collection, and reporting can stay ahead of the compliance curve to minimize penalties and fines. This also opens the door to sustainability-related government incentives and other programs.

Strategic Approaches to Integrate Sustainability

Historically, many businesses approached sustainability in piecemeal. Today, such informal approaches are ill-suited to meet customer and stakeholder expectations. Businesses require sustainability strategies that align with strategic goals and integrate into operational processes.

The following are common and effective strategies for integrating sustainability into business operations.

1. Align sustainability with core business strategy: Aligning a business around its core mission gets everyone on the same page. The first step is to develop clear sustainability goals that sync with the company’s mission, objectives, and business strategy, then collect the data to measure and report on progress. Just as importantly, alignment shouldn’t exist only at the top of an organization. Involve representatives from various functions and departments in setting sustainability objectives for ongoing collaboration. Investing in technology, such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, can significantly help integrate sustainability into day-to-day business processes.
2. Engage stakeholders in sustainability efforts: This works best if key stakeholders collaboratively develop the organization’s sustainability plans. That way, all of their interests are considered early—and their expectations can be managed effectively. Successful stakeholder engagement helps foster trust in the teams that implement sustainability strategies and programs. Bringing in expertise from all levels of the organization can lead to better results. Common stakeholders include employees, customers, suppliers, business partners, investors, policymakers, and representatives of the communities impacted by the organization’s plans.
3. Drive innovation and sustainable product development: Sustainability-focused innovation can lead to new and better products, more efficient designs, improved social impact, and reduced waste or GHG emissions. These efforts can go far beyond the design of a product or service when examining the entire life cycle and broader impacts of a product among components, stakeholders, and environmental factors.
4. Enhance operational efficiency for sustainability: Improving operational efficiency is always a good business practice, whether it’s raising throughput, automating labor-intensive manual tasks, or eliminating unnecessary steps from a business process. In addition, efficiency gains often have a sustainability upside. In fact, viewing operational efficiency through a sustainability lens can open up greater opportunities to improve business operations while contributing to environmental and social sustainability goals. This creates a win-win situation featuring reduced costs, increased productivity, and minimized environmental impact.
5. Develop human capital for sustainability: A Deloitte Insights article explained that organizations should focus on human sustainability because, “When people thrive, business thrives.” The consultancy notes that companies that create value for their people achieve better outcomes for themselves, their employees, and society. Thus, effective and thoughtful human capital management should be designed not only to get the most output from employees, but also to protect their well-being, including health, education, equity, advancement, and connection. Thus far, just 10% of organizations describe themselves as leading in advancing human sustainability—but 76% recognize the importance of doing so, according to Deloitte.
6. Integrate sustainability into financial performance: Sustainability initiatives should be measured not just in terms of goodwill or reputation, but as part of a company’s financial performance. Chief financial officers can shepherd this by developing concrete metrics demonstrating impact on enterprise value. This involves creating specific key performance indicators (KPIs), quantifying sustainability risks and opportunities, and establishing clear methodologies for measuring returns on sustainability investments. To effectively integrate sustainability into financial operations, companies need robust systems and processes. Enterprise performance management (EPM) has emerged as a valuable tool for this integration. While EPM traditionally focused on purely financial metrics, forward-thinking organizations now use it to track and guide sustainability efforts alongside standard financial performance measures.

Overcoming Challenges in Business Sustainability

Companies may encounter hurdles when initiating, managing, and maintaining sustainability efforts, including organizational inertia. To combat inaction, it can be helpful to reframe sustainability investments as a priority to achieve future business goals, particularly when the sustainability agenda is aligned with the overall corporate strategy.

Resistance to change is just one issue that organizations come up against in their sustainability efforts. Some other common challenges organizations face include the following:

Initial Investment Costs

Introducing new, sustainable business practices and strategies can require upfront investments because it is always less costly to stay on the current course—at least in the moment. Building a business case that quantifies the return on investment (ROI) for sustainability initiatives can illustrate how short-term costs increase profitability and other long-term benefits.

Risk of Greenwashing

Greenwashing is a general term for making false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims regarding the sustainability of a company’s products or practices. While it typically refers to intentional efforts to deceive, some companies may inadvertently mislead the public by not following through on their promises. In either case, it can have negative implications, such as reputational damage, lost sales, or even legal ramifications. Companies can avoid the risks of greenwashing by being transparent about their efforts and progress, being very specific about sustainability claims, making sure that what they say publicly aligns with actions, and staying current on the latest sustainability language and best practices. Some have even obtained third-party “green certifications.”

Absence of Clear Guidelines

Any lack of clarity in corporate sustainability guidelines increases the likelihood that an enterprise will stray from its sustainability strategy and goals. Without clear policies and processes, departments, teams, and individuals may struggle with sustainable decisions. That can diminish results while risking noncompliance with sustainability regulations and possibly impacting investor confidence, brand reputation, and customer trust. The absence of clear guidelines from governments or other institutions can also complicate compliance.

Global Inconsistencies in Standards

Sustainability is a relatively new corporate practice, and many different sustainability reporting frameworks and standards have emerged in recent years. The lack of a standardized reporting framework results in different metrics and methodologies across companies. This makes it difficult to compare sustainability efforts from company to company or benchmark sustainability performance.

Complexities in Supply Chain Management

Many stakeholders expect businesses to be accountable for sustainability practices throughout their supply chains, but achieving full transparency and consistent standards across multiple tiers of suppliers is challenging. Companies frequently struggle to obtain reliable sustainability data from both their direct suppliers and their suppliers’ suppliers. Even when data is available, integrating and interpreting it can be a struggle due to its volume and complexity. Finding suppliers that align with a company’s sustainability goals presents another hurdle. In some cases, sustainable options for certain goods or components may not exist at all. To address these challenges effectively, companies should first clarify their short- and long-term supply chain sustainability goals, then collaborate with their strategic tier-1 partners to identify specific risks and opportunities for improvement before expanding across their broader supplier network.

Challenges in Data Collection and Analysis

An effective sustainability program requires assembling and analyzing a wide variety of data at large volumes from many sources, both inside and outside of the organization. Collecting and managing all of that data requires contributions from disparate sources: human resources, operations, supply chain and logistics partners, third-party weather data, and more. To close data gaps, it is helpful to review ESG data collection processes with an eye toward identifying missing data, investing in automated data collection tools, and working with third parties to provide supplemental data. To bring this together, investing in tools and processes for data integration is critical, particularly with automation capabilities. Finally, advanced analytics is essential for understanding the current state of an organization’s sustainability program and suggesting improvements for the future.

Technological Limitations

A variety of technological limitations challenge companies’ sustainability programs. Many organizations, for example, struggle to integrate or afford new sustainable technologies with their existing infrastructure while others struggle with collecting and analyzing relevant data. And truly sustainable technological alternatives may not be fully developed for some industry sectors. Companies should carefully plan their sustainability initiatives by assessing current technological capabilities and limitations. Other options include training and upskilling, partnering with technology providers to bridge knowledge gaps, and collaborations for accessibility and affordability.

Measuring the Impact of Sustainability Initiatives

Businesses must measure the sustainability results to determine if they meet or exceed their expected ROI, then share them with stakeholders to avoid the perception of greenwashing. This starts with determining sustainability goals and identifying the appropriate KPIs for tracking performance against those aims. Make sure your KPI choices are measurable and specific.

The following are some of the most important environmental, economic, and social KPIs.

Environmental KPIs

Environmental KPIs are metrics designed to assess, monitor, and report on an organization’s performance and progress toward its environmental sustainability goals. These can be customized to reflect business- or industry-specific goals and priorities. Some common environmental KPIs include the following:

• Carbon footprint: This metric measures the total amount of GHG emissions an organization produces, converted into carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), including a company’s own direct emissions (called Scope 1 in the international GHG Protocol), as well as indirect emissions, such as those produced by its power usage (Scope 2) and in its supply chain (Scope 3).
• Energy consumption: This KPI reflects the total amount of energy an organization uses and is usually broken down by energy source (e.g., natural gas, electricity, or renewable sources like solar or wind) and typically reported in kilowatt-hours (kWh) or joules.
• Water consumption: Similar to energy consumption, the water consumption KPI tracks how much water an organization uses during operations, typically measured in cubic meters or gallons. This may be broken down by source, such as municipal supply, groundwater, or rainwater harvesting. It may also be categorized by use, including manufacturing processes, cooling, or sanitation.
• Waste generation: This KPI measures how much waste an organization produces by weight or volume. It is often broken down by disposal method (incineration, landfill, recycling, composting) and type (hazardous, nonhazardous, electronic, organic). Companies use it to track progress in waste reduction efforts, identify opportunities to improve resource efficiency, and guide circular economy initiatives.
• Resource efficiency: This measures how effectively a business uses its resources (energy, water, raw materials) in relation to its output and is expressed as a ratio of input to output.. Tracking this KPI highlights areas for improvement in terms of process optimization, waste reduction, and cost savings.
• Biodiversity impact: Biodiversity KPIs assess an organization’s effect on local ecosystems and species diversity by collecting metrics or qualitative data related to habitat preservation, restoration investments, or the effect of operations on local species. Such KPIs assess an organization’s environmental stewardship to help it manage reputational risks, as well as the long-term sustainability of operations that depend on natural ecosystems.

Economic KPIs

The economic sustainability pillar is all about activities that improve a business’s financial health while also contributing to environmental or social sustainability. Economic KPIs enable organizations to measure, track, and report on those activities. These KPIs also allow companies to monitor the financial viability of their sustainability initiatives. The following are four common economic sustainability KPIs:

• Revenue from sustainable products: This metric refers to the revenue generated from products that meet specific sustainability criteria. Companies use it to track the growth rates of sustainable products versus traditional offerings, assess the financial impact of sustainability initiatives on sales, determine the contribution of sustainable products to overall revenue, and guide ongoing product development and marketing strategies.
• Cost savings from sustainability initiatives: This looks at the benefits of sustainability initiatives to the bottom line. It measures cost reductions that are attributable to sustainability efforts, such as water conservation, increased energy efficiency, or waste reduction and management.
• ROI of sustainability projects: ROI calculates the financial returns on sustainability investments (dividing net return by project cost), expressed as a percentage. ROI is essential for securing buy-in from stakeholders for sustainability initiatives and for prioritizing future sustainability investments.
• Market share of sustainable products: This KPI tracks the percentage of sales or revenue derived from products marketed as sustainable within their specific product categories. Such market share KPIs can help companies evaluate the potential growth of sustainable product offerings relative to conventional alternatives, customer demand for sustainable products within specific categories, and the effectiveness of their sustainability marketing efforts.

Social KPIs

Social KPIs focus on an organization’s impact on its employees and their communities. Measuring and tracking the following metrics can demonstrate the impact of social sustainability in both quantifiable and qualitative terms.

• Employee satisfaction: Surveys are the main way companies measure employee satisfaction, though focus groups and one-on-one interviews are also useful. The goal is to understand the extent to which employees feel that their workplace offers a healthy, engaging, and supportive work environment. Tracking employee retention rate and employee satisfaction can offer a more comprehensive view of employee sentiment and the effectiveness of workplace policies.
• Community impact: Metrics for tracking the impact of sustainability efforts include the value of investments in community projects, employee volunteer hours, donations to local causes, partnerships with local organizations, and local hiring rates.
• Customer satisfaction: Companies should measure how effectively they meet or exceed customer expectations in general and with respect to any sustainability initiatives. For example, customer satisfaction surveys and net promoter scores are a strong start, as are customer retention and loyalty rates. But when trying to understand the relationships among a business, its customers, and its sustainability initiatives, companies should also measure customer engagement with those initiatives and customers’ perception of the company’s social and environmental responsibility.
• Supplier ethics: Customers expect companies to take responsibility for their own sustainability practices as well as for their suppliers and business partners. Therefore, it’s vital for companies to understand and, in some cases, audit the ethical and sustainability practices of third parties. The key metrics to measure include the percentage of suppliers meeting the organization’s stated ethical and sustainability standards, the frequency—and results—of supplier audits, improvements in supplier sustainability practices over time, and compliance with human rights and labor standards throughout the supply chain. One new area of focus is the ethical use of AI. Already, 21% of companies are reporting on the responsible use of AI, according to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.

Sustainability in Action: Customer Success Stories

One of the best ways to gain a full understanding of how organizations can embrace sustainability is to examine real-life examples. The following examines sustainability in action at some companies across different sectors.

Waiākea

Waiākea is a packaged water company that launched specifically to meet a growing demand for more environmentally sound approaches to bottled water sourcing and packaging. The brand, based outside of Hilo, Hawaii, has been sourcing its water from a sustainable aquifer at the base of the Mauna Loa volcano for more than a decade. Waiakea’s water begins as rain and snowmelt at the top of the volcano and filters through thousands of feet of porous volcanic rock before the company then bottles and ships the resulting alkaline water at a rate of 10,000 gallons a day (which still accounts for less than 0.003% of the water that feeds the company’s aquifer).

Waiakea’s sustainability work extends beyond sourcing—it encompasses the full production process. Waiakea offsets its carbon footprint through a renewable energy facility and local and regional reforestation projects. It uses 100% recycled bottles—made of high-grade rPET, a type of plastic that requires less energy and water to manufacture than virgin plastic bottles—as well as aluminum recycled. The brand has also launched a number of other societal impact initiatives, from supporting local communities and allowing employees to use some of their work hours for community service to its program to donate clean water to Malawi, Africa, for each case of water it sells. Today, Waiakea continues to see significant growth while selling to 10,000 stores in 48 U.S. states.

BioPak

BioPak focuses on producing the most sustainable, environmentally friendly packaging available. It uses compostable, plant-based (rather than oil-based) “bioplastic” to provide food packaging. BioPak describes its vision as “a world without waste,” and its mission is to close the loop in customers’ circular economy business initiatives with its compostable products and composting infrastructure. The packaging can be composted either at home or in an industrial facility, diverting waste from landfills that continue to produce methane emissions.

To increase the impact of its efforts, BioPak works with governments, customers, and the waste industry to encourage new behaviors. In 2021, it launched a not-for-profit platform dedicated to education, increasing composting rates, and connecting food-service businesses to commercial organic waste pick-up services. Its Emission Reduction Plan also funds related research, education, and advocacy projects to boost composting as an end-of-life option in its local markets. BioPak’s sustainability efforts extend beyond the environment to ensure that people are treated and paid fairly and that its products are safe. The company has a partnership with DoorDash to introduce sustainable packaging to customers; it also recently introduced compostable beer cups for outdoor events and an environmental-impact label designed to increase transparency and minimize greenwashing.

Coda Coffee

Coda Coffee made a name for itself as the world’s first recycled air coffee roaster. Instead of heating ambient air, Coda recycles the air inside its roasting chambers, so seasonal changes in humidity and temperature have no impact. Because the recycled air quickly becomes depleted of oxygen for an inert roasting atmosphere, the delicate flavors of the coffee bean are protected.

In addition, Coda has long been committed to working with its coffee bean suppliers to encourage sustainable growing practices that often exceed fair trade standards. The company has prioritized maintaining its sustainability stance as it has grown and expanded from B2B distribution to online B2C sales, coffee equipment maintenance, and its own brick-and-mortar retail store.

Greentech Environmental

Greentech Environmental is an air purification company founded in 2009 whose wide range of products—air filters, standalone air purifiers, and heaters—use “technology inspired by nature.” Its Greentech Filters+, for example, feature technology that attack odors and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at the molecular level. Rather than just mask smells, it transforms the odor or VOC molecules into inert substances. Its customers are in healthcare, hospitality, and education, among other commercial sectors.

The company’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond cleaner air. Greentech Environmental has designed its filters to use 50% less synthetic material, which requires fewer resources and sends less waste to landfills.

The Future of Sustainability in Business

Sustainability has become established as more than just a passing fad. Some have referred to it as a megatrend that will dominate a company’s ability to compete—or even survive—in the years ahead.

At the 2024 World Economic Forum (WEF) conference in Davos, Switzerland, the prevailing sentiment focused on how businesses can become more proactive in creating positive sustainability impacts. “We know that the growth that we’ve experienced over the years has been powered with an overconsumption of Earth’s finite resources,” said Gim Huay Neo, managing director of WEF Geneva, during one of the Davos panels. “The big question that companies have to navigate is, can they continue to grow, can they continue to generate profits, while cutting emissions and stopping depleting natural resources?” The key, she said, is building new businesses and economic models that perform as well or better than those in place today.

Meantime, a majority of the public is also looking to corporations to lead the way toward environmental sustainability. More than half (52%) of U.S. respondents to a Pew Research Center survey said they believe that businesses and corporations can do “a lot” to reduce the effects of climate change.

The near-future agenda for businesses will extend to all three of the sustainability pillars. The good news is that companies can harness powerful technology tools in their efforts, including better AI and data analytics to improve resource usage, blockchain technologies to increase transparency, and enterprise technology platforms to tie it all together and produce effective reporting.

Implement Your Green Initiatives With NetSuite

NetSuite ERP can help streamline sustainability data management by gathering the relevant information from finance, supply chain, human capital, and customer relationships into a single platform. Thanks to automated data collection, NetSuite reduces the risk of poor data quality and collection. Customizable dashboards enable ongoing monitoring and analysis of sustainability metrics so that a company can progress toward its goals. It also offers sustainability-specific capabilities within the platform, such as one from a NetSuite partner that measures a company’s ESG compliance relative to standard benchmarks, using proprietary modeling based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) emissions factors. NetSuite also offers a technical customization for a carbon footprint emissions calculation that provides ongoing, real-time tracking of emissions based on an organization’s operational activities.

NetSuite Supply Chain Management can extend these capabilities throughout a company’s supply chain. It empowers companies to more easily and effectively share data throughout their supply chains, communicate and collaborate with suppliers, produce reports, perform predictive analytics, and rapidly respond to emerging sustainability issues.

Businesses’ focus on sustainability is here to stay—and companies seeking to thrive in the years ahead are likely to double down on their efforts across all three pillars: environmental sustainability, social sustainability, and economic sustainability. Fortunately, sustainability offers significant business benefits, from lower costs and greater efficiency to happier customers and employees, to increased revenue and growth. While sustainability best practices and standards continue to emerge, businesses should invest in the best technologies and processes available today to underpin their sustainability efforts now and into the future.

Sustainability FAQs

What is a simple definition of sustainability?

A simple definition of sustainability is the ability to meet current needs of a task, process, or organization without compromising the long-term health of the environment or community.

Is sustainability a good thing?

Yes, sustainability is a good thing for people and businesses. In a sustainable society and economy, humans and businesses focus on conserving resources for future generations, existing in harmony with and protecting the natural environment, and improving access to social equality and quality of life. Businesses are finding that investing in sustainability—environmental, social, and economic—offers benefits in terms of lower costs, greater efficiency, market and customer expansion, and more.

How is something considered sustainable?

Something is considered sustainable when it produces the desired goal without resulting in harm or destruction. The concept of sustainability is built on the idea of support for environmental, human, societal, and economic well-being. A growing number of standards and certifications can help verify whether a product or practice is sustainable.

What is the basic idea behind sustainability?

The basic idea behind sustainability is to develop strategies and plans to meet the needs of current generations without compromising those of future generations. It can be applied at the individual, business, regional, or societal level. The three pillars of sustainability are environmental, social, and economic. Ideally, the goal is to strike a balance among environmental responsibility, social well-being, and economic growth.