Earlier this year, IBM’s ‘Institute for Business Value‘ convened some 1,600 business, NGO and government leaders along with journalists, analysts and environmental experts to discuss what we at Octopus call the Sustainability Imperative.
Their consensus, not surprisingly, was that ‘eco-efficiency,’ as they call it, will be the “biggest economic ‘game-changer’ for organizations in the next 20 years.”
They outline three specific essentials that leaders will need to pursue:
- Deliver highly efficient “‘green’ infrastructures,” that overlay digital intelligence atop of physical infrastructure.
- Promote resource efficiency and reduce social impact.
- Embrace open standards for better infrastructure, water and transportation management.
In our work consulting to mission-driven and responsible organizations, we’ve learned that these points from IBM’s report summary are but the beginning of the work needed to adapt to the Sustainability Imperative. Or more accurately, they’re just the front edge of the opportunities.
It is more valuable to focus on implementing positive social impact than it is on simply reducing the negative. Organizations like the members of our new client TheChange.com are building thriving businesses that also deliver positive, enduring environmental and social value.
It is essential to rethink the nature of new physical infrastructure, as much as it is to develop and deploy the digital intelligence that can monitor existing infrastructure. Buildings, for example, are responsible for more carbon output than any other category of emitter. While organizations like Vancouver’s Pulse Energy monitor their output and empower owners and managers to improve their impact, designers of new buildings must think about the impact of a project that will exist 50, 100 or even more years from now.
And open standards are revolutionizing an incredible array of social, environmental and technological realms of our work and lives. Open government is springing new business ideas and new efficiencies in our communities; open data is helping innovators and entrepreneurs to build business opportunities that reach around the world in a fraction of the time it used to take companies to build global brands; and open communication is changing fundamentally the way our world interacts—with news from Thailand reaching overseas in mere moments.
“Outperformers in the near future will be those that will adapt a proactive and holistic approach,” says IBM. We couldn’t agree more. The challenge for organizations and their leaders today is that “the near future” is incredibly close. And with the transparency of instant global communication, there’s no space for hedging bets or balancing profit vs. benefit. The leaders are defining models and practices that are inherently sustainable.
Downloads:
The IBM Institute for Business Value report. (PDF 1.4MB)
The Executive Summary. (PDF 736KB)
Octopus Strategies Vancouver | London
April 27th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Shortly after entering this post, I received this link to Globe’s site, where a more robust breakdown of the ingredients of the Sustainability Imperative is presented: http://ow.ly/1DM72 “The old rules no longer apply,” it states, “for the Enterprise of Tomorrow.”