Sustainability is going to disrupt your business, so why are you not disrupting?

Sustainability, for brands and businesses, should NOT be the conundrum it seems to be!

As Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said: “If you do not change direction, you might end up where you are heading”.

If death and taxes are the only certainties in life, then disruption and taxes, assuming profits of course, are the only certainties for business. In today’s world, disruption comes from all sides, and sometimes you don’t recognise it till it punches you in the face… too late!

I’ve been inside an upstart disruptive global business that grabbed market share at unprecedented speed and soared to industry dominance. The ride was exhilarating, and I learnt so much from the journey to the summit!

I have also experienced how industry disruption can bring down the mighty at twice the speed of the previous growth. I saw how the pain, for so many, was and continues to be acute and I learnt far more from the rapid descent than I ever did on the journey up.

Companies have a lot to consider when it comes to disruption. Upstart brands, new technologies, AI, changes in market conditions, consumer preferences and so much more. The list is endless, and as Covid taught us, sometimes altogether unpredictable.

When it comes to sustainability though, the impending disruption is staring us all in the face. We all know it’s coming and it’s only a matter of time. So why don’t businesses lead with action? Surely future proofing a business and disrupting before you’re disrupted is a key responsibility for the CEO, C-suite, and executive leadership team?

I’ve always believed that businesses have a responsibility to the communities they operate in, but so many companies seem to be slow-walking sustainability action. Some are quietly waiting for government legislation before acting, while others are proactively lobbying governments to maintain the status-quo. Since we started the Green Office Project by Banyan Workspace, we have seen several companies that are strangled into inertia by existing personnel, processes, operational protocols or a to-do-list with other priorities. These companies are quite literally kicking the discarded plastic bottle down the road!

It's not difficult to understand why a CEO may choose to maintain the status-quo. When you’re at the head of a large business, changing course from what delivers today, for your shareholders, investors, employees, key stakeholders, and your annual bonus is hard to justify.

But there is an extensive list of former industry stalwarts who chose not to change and now, because of industry disruption, no longer exist in any meaningful way. Surely this should be a lesson to every brand, business and company facing an inevitable disruption? I believe my old Kodak camera is still in my bottom drawer with the Blockbuster VHS tape I failed to return and my first Nokia flip phone!

What is hard to comprehend is the all or nothing approach many businesses take to sustainability and how approaching corporate sustainability in this way can lead to complete corporate inertia on this critical initiative. Changing course is admittedly hard for the largest companies, but it’s also far from impossible, and, as we all know, small steps taken day after day can lead to incredible outcomes over a longer period.

It’s been clear that perfection with sustainability does not exist and it’s also clear that customers do not expect it. This is a journey requiring commitment and constant internal evaluation. Low hanging fruit can always be identified and tackled and tackling it is the simplest way to dislodge company inertia.

Being brave enough to share what is being done today, what will be done and what still needs to be done creates a sustainable road map for any brand. This is also the best thing you can do for public relations and long-term consumer trust and is far better than the flagrant attempts by some to convince customers that what they are buying is sustainable. Especially when the claims that hint or blatantly lie about a products sustainable credentials are categorically false.

The latter approach, over the short term, does nothing more than promote an internal culture of misrepresentation and mistrust. Over a longer time horizon, it destroys any moral authority previously attributed to a brand and a company’s leadership from both customers and its own employee base. This approach is a recipe for disaster!

“As we all know, small steps taken day after day can lead to incredible outcomes over a longer period.”

For companies struggling with how to take the next meaningful step, I would argue that its mission critical to start by raising internal awareness and an understanding of the issues. This needs to be done by engaging all key decision makers, and setting a top-down vision while simultaneously empowering decision makers to find ways of achieving this.

Key decision makers within any business tend to be the functional experts. They know what must be delivered and they have the functional context to understand the implications of any change. They are best placed to define how change should be implemented to achieve the vision.

The Green Office Project by Banyan Workspace was set up to partner with and help Hong Kong companies raise internal awareness and employee understanding of climate change, allowing them to appreciate why change is imperative.

This is achieved though interactive workshops that engage internal decision makers on the facts around our climate crisis and by educating and inspiring decision makers to make the changes that enable them to deliver on the vision.

Active encouragement of internal stakeholders to identify low hanging fruit themselves and to take steps that kick start or progress a company’s sustainability journey is a critical part of the approach.

At Green Office Project by Banyan Workspace, we leverage the personal experience of our team who have worked in large multinationals as well as our previous work helping our clients accelerate their sustainability journeys.

Our client base includes the likes of Knight Frank, Crédit Agricole CIB, The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited, Swire Hotels, The Bank of East Asia, Limited (BEA) , HKMC, Ekimetrics and some of the LVMH group of companies and our team has many years of corporate experience working for brands and companies from DFS Group Limited, Fossil Group, Inc., Telstra, Swatch Group and Siemens .

Our experienced team, together with our extensive network of innovative solution providers, position us perfectly to kick start action within any business and we try and do this by starting with the corporate office. A sustainable office environment helps create and reinforce a culture that all employees work within, and creating this environment is essential to driving behavioural change.

Afterall, we are all a product of the environment in which we live and work and what better way to build a culture of sustainable decision making than creating an office environment in which it can flourish.

If you would like to learn more about partnering with Green Office Project by Banyan Workspace we can be reached through our website.

As Lao Tzu said, if you do not change direction, you might end up where you are heading, and that may just be into my bottom drawer alongside my old Kodak camera, Blockbuster VHS video tape and first Nokia flip-phone!