“Business sustainability? Embed it and forget it.” This quote is the first line of the new book, Earth Inc. It’s the ultimate goal of any really honest corporate sustainability professional – to make sustainability not a continuous “journey” but second nature in a company. Author Gregory Unruh argues that there is, in fact, a very definite and known destination for sustainability, and it relates to effective value chain management.

Unruh’s basic argument is that our view of our industrial value chains has to change from a “take-make-waste” system view, to one that also considers recovery logistics and materials cycling. This also requires taking a hard look at what materials are used to create products, and how production is powered.

The author considers five major issues that companies need to tackle to be more successful and ultimately more sustainable:

1. Materials parsimony: Companies should minimize the types of materials used in products with a focus on materials that are “life-friendly” and economically recyclable.
2. Power autonomy: Maximize the power autonomy of products and processes so they can function on renewable energy.
3. Value cycles: Again, as explained above, recover and reuse materials from the production process and develop them into new value-added products.
4. Sustainable product platforms: Creating sustainable product platforms involves creating a foundational operating system from which other value can be developed. For instance, Windows and UNIX serve as such platforms in the IT world. Automotive companies have operated in the same manner. On a basic level, however, it’s about finding “commonalities among product, processes and markets while also addressing variety in market demand and lowering costs.”
5. Function over form: Fulfill customers’ needs in ways that sustain the value cycle. The author offers Xerox as an example of this thinking. Essentially, everything that Xerox deals in is designed to be returned to the company. It’s a service model that leaves the customer with only what it needs – the documents it produces using Xerox machines.

If this book has one challenge it’s the title. I would have preferred “Profit, Inc.” Ultimately what is being described is better, tighter logistics management. It’s about creating a value and supply chain that is less threatened by outside economic forces, although by no means immune to them. A valuable read for anyone attempting to put sustainable thinking front and centre in their operations.

To read an excerpt from the book, click here.

Earth, Inc.: using nature’s rules to build sustainable profits. By Gregory Unruh. Published by Harvard Business Press. For more information, or to order the book, click here.

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