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How to Move Forward and Embed Sustainability in the Organizational DNA?
Robert Altman’s wonderfully cynical film about the movie business, The Player, contains an essential truth about stories that may be instructive in framing the sustainability proposition for tough economic times. In the film, the central character, a movie producer, is asked why a particular screenplay wasn’t filmed. He says it lacked certain qualities necessary to make a commercially successful movie. There is a pause. He expands on his answer. He says up, as opposed to down; happy as opposed to sad; hopeful as opposed to desperate; and a happy ending:especially a happy ending. His point is that while all people like stories; most people like stories that offer hope — and a happy ending. Stories in which good triumphs over evil; stories propelled by an engaging and entertaining narrative — the route to the happy ending matters.

Now consider the way in which the sustainability "story" has been told - both to external stakeholders and to our colleagues down the hall. Is it any wonder the majority of people have tuned out? We need to forge a story about sustainability that hasn’t been told yet (or told well). We need to shape a compelling vision of the future, and sell that vision with the kind of passion, money and marketing savvy that Hollywood sells movies. We need to convince people through the art of storytelling that this vision is worth fighting for.

To begin telling this story, we should take advantage of the breathing space the recession creates for reflection and innovation and define a vision of our organization, project, or community as sustainable. In particular, we should ask what we would do to be truly sustainable that is different from what we do now. This vision should be a manifesto for change that catalyzes critical and creative thinking. 

On the one hand, this means getting the foundational things right - the environment, health, safety and social management systems that are sometimes neglected when we’re sprinting to keep up with the market. The (forced) slowdown caused by the recession creates room to put these essential systems into place.  But of course, sustainability means going beyond the basics - especially in tough economic times. It is about finding efficiencies by leveraging R&D to reduce the environmental footprint of business processes; rethinking the nature of the business processes themselves; and working with government to direct stimulus funding in service of sustainability outcomes - speeding a "green" recovery and the creation of a new generation of goods and economic opportunity. I typically ask 7 questions to spur the thinking and deep conversation that can guide in moving toward these kinds of outcomes:

1. Why does my firm or organization exist? What am I producing or creating that is truly of value to the community of which I am a part?
2. What are my assumptions about resource constraints and commodity prices in the medium and long run?
3. Am I changing or even challenging the mainstream profession and its dogma, or am I content to do the occasional boutique project?
4. What does sustainability mean to me and my colleagues? Where is it on the strategic radar of my organization?
5. How do (or should) we engage our customers and partners in a meaningful discussion of sustainability?
6. How should we think about and measure success?
7. What are we doing to protect (and grow) critical local economy assets that are needed to ensure success - assets such as: (1) an environment for entrepreneurialism; (2) an infrastructure for scientific research; (3) great universities; (4) a strong commitment to real competition and free markets; and (5) efficient capital markets.

In thinking about these questions, it is instructive to remember that In 1908, the Ford Model-T got better mileage - 25 miles per gallon - than many Ford, GM and Chrysler models made in 2008. While the complexities of the U.S. auto industry are real, and different in many respects from other industries, we can’t help but wonder why a century of innovation in managerial thought and science and technology didn’t deliver greater gains in vehicle fuel efficiency. Thomas Friedman, the influential Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, commented on this very issue when he observed that while the Big Three auto makers were looking for bailout money to sustain a fundamentally 20th century business model, new entrepreneurs were breaking the auto mold such as Shai Agassi’s electric car network company, Better Place:
   
Under the Better Place model, consumers buy or lease an electric car and then buy miles on their electric car batteries from Better Place the way consumers now buy an Apple cell phone and the minutes from AT&T. In this way, Better Place benefits from each mile driven. GM once sold cars; Better Place sells mobility miles. This is a strategic leap forward from the 20th century model popularized by the Detroit automakers - it is a re-start of the industrial economy. And it raises a fundamental question for all companies — what is the Better Place story for your organization, and who is working on it?

Our willingness to ask searching questions about what we do and why we do it; our willingness to engage our colleagues in a different kind of learning; and our willingness to accept that there are many ways of knowing should shape our ability to meet the challenge of keeping sustainability central to the task of management in tough economic times. Put another way, it will determine if we can, as Proust would have us, "see with new eyes" and frame our response to the recession to accord with the principles of sustainability. After all, even the narrowest definition of sustainability - using environmental innovation to create new ways to design, manufacture, and provide goods and services that use dramatically less resources - is a sound strategy for generating value.

Rob Abbott is the Director of Sustainability for Stratos Inc., Canada’s leading strategic consultancy focused on sustainability. You can reach him at rabbott@stratos-sts.com.

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