Inspiring Action

How to Make Your Business More Successful and Sustainable

Having spent nearly a decade as a Supply Chain manager in a relocation company, too many times I have sat through RFP best and finals where suppliers are asked about their sustainability goals and what they’ve done to implement these. The answers that come up most frequently are “we’re reducing the amount of paper we print in the office, we recycle, or we are taking public transport more”. Whilst these are all beneficial, a “sustainability policy” this does not make.

On the flip side, there are many suppliers that are better educated about sustainability measures and reaching carbon neutrality; however, a large majority of these suppliers rely heavily on carbon off-set rather than reducing their own emission. Arguably, the second notion is more impactful than the first, but to make your business more sustainable and successful, you must introduce three things: systems thinking, collaboration and a triple bottom line approach.

"Systems thinking is a concept that focuses on relationships, interdependencies and feedbacks, viewing a system as a whole, rather than examining the behavior of individual elements".

(Levin et al., 2012)

Systems thinking can be applied to many problems- including climate change. There is not one single solution that can be found to tackle the issue – it requires input and cooperation from all sectors- private, public, communities, technology, governments, cities and individuals alike. Businesses will need to adopt the same approach if they truly hope to become more sustainable. They will need a bespoke strategy to tackle environmental, social and governance issues in their own company and country or region of operation. Sustainable businesses are successful businesses, and the sooner the company can fully incorporate sustainable practices and ethos into their entire value chain, the more this sets them up for long term success.

Taking Nordic countries as an example – they are leading the way in the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach. The TBL focuses on the three P’s – Profit, People and the Planet. The companies that have adopted the TBL approach require evidence of the business impact on people and the environment. An excellent example of this is the pharmaceutical company, Novo Nordisk. Initially, they decided they were a company that made insulin for Type 2 diabetes. Then looking at the entirety of the issue (systems thinking), they took it a step further and committed themselves to preventing obesity and Type 2 diabetes, starting to invest in other ways to help people.

One of their initiatives is Cities for Better Health - a public-private partnership committed to driving action to defeat serious chronic diseases in urban settings. In this global network, they work on prevention in partnership with 50+ cities to encourage healthier urban living and more play time. They also work with local communities to increase access to healthy places to make it easier for people to eat nutritious food, engage in physical activity and achieve well-being and good health. (https://www.novonordisk.com/) This example illustrates the power that companies have to step back, take a macro-view, and start to make changes based on the USP (unique selling point) of the company and their strengths.

Sustainability progress and working toward the SDGs does not happen in a vacuum-

collaboration is key to everyone’s success. Environmental protection needs to go hand in hand with reducing poverty and inequality. Investing in human capital and talent strategies brings prosperity to all. Systems thinking and collaboration are integral strategies that your business must employ to stay relevant, connected, and successful. By embedding sustainability into core operations – this is when we start to see real and impactful change.

There are lots of ‘ways in’ to systems thinking. Here is an example starting point diagram called a context diagram, you start by stating the complex challenge in the middle. This example was inspired by a GOV.UK Blog titled "Systems thinking" by James Hostford in 2020.