You are here
Sustainability -- Finally Mainstream?
By Anca Novacovici, President and Founder of Eco-Coach for The Huffington Post
July 9, 2012
Sustainability is ubiquitous -- it is on the news, touted on corporate websites, and marketed on the products we find on the shelf. The Harvard Business Review defined it as a business mega-trendin 2010, putting it in the same category as electrification, mass production, information technology and globalization. Even with all of this attention, however, can it be considered mainstream in the businessworld?
Sustainability, like many new concepts, has followed a typical bell curve. While some might argue that we are now in the early or even late majority part of that curve, I would argue that businesses are just barely transitioning to the early majority phase -- at least in the United States.
A 2011 KPMG studyon corporate responsibility reviewed reports from over 3400 companies worldwide, and categorized American companies as 'scratching the surface' as opposed to companies mainly in Europe which were seen as 'leading the pack.' According to the study,while "ninety-five percent of the 250 largest companies in the world now report on their corporate responsibility activities, two-thirds of non-reporters are based in the US." These are companies that have focused more on communicating their actions than on actually operationalizing sustainable business practices. This is something that Ihave also seen when working with organizations on their sustainability initiatives.
