Past Insights

On June 4th I gave a keynote address to the Vermont-New Hampshire Marketing Group. As is often the case, I never made it through my whole talk. In fact I only covered six of my 26 pages of notes. (Not that I should have ever had so many pages for an hour and fifteen minute talk!)

The good news is that the group asked a ton of questions, which meant I was talking about issues they really care about, and I promised them that I would post some of the notes that I never got to cover — at least the notes that make sense without additional commentary.

This is an unprecedented moment in history

The disruption, uncertainty, and reordering of our economic life will lead to new worldviews, and new possibilities.

This “new world” will be marked by an unfolding revolution in social values and behavior.

Quality will win out over quantity

Driven by economic uncertainty, we will buy less stuff.

Longer-term thinking will prevail over short-term thinking

Driven by concern for our children’s future, we will ask: What are the longer-term implications of my decisions?

Community concerns will trump individual needs

We will want to know what’s in it for us, not just what’s in it for me.
We will want to know where we can find a community of shared values.

We will embark on a search for meaning

We will realize that we are unable to take anything in life for granted.
The question will become, “What really matters and is worth holding onto?”

Responsibility will be required

Acknowledging that greed and selfishness has jeopardized the current economic world order, we will accept nothing less than institutions that engage in responsible behavior.

We cannot return to business as usual!

Will the economic meltdown slow the sustainability imperative?

No.

Why?

There are seven reasons:

1. Global warming will not subside even if the stock market does
2. Oil prices will go up again and continue to rise and:
   • The $700 billion annual cost of paying for our foreign oil consumption will never be good for our economy
   • Long term energy efficient businesses will beat their competitors
3. Species (plants & animals) are still disappearing at alarming rates and taking with them solutions to problems
4. We are running out of fresh water, this will lead to war
5. Inequality and the concentration of wealth does not create healthy consumer markets
6. Cost-cutting: well-executed environmental programs lead to reduced operating costs and improved efficiencies.
   • McDonald’s plans to convert the oil used to cook its fries into fuel for all its delivery trucks in the UK.
7. The economy simply won’t return to normal

From a business perspective it makes more sense to be responsible

• If you had bought stock in all the public companies in Milton Moskowitz’s survey ranking the 100 best companies to work for in 1998, when it was first published by Fortune magazine, and held it until 2005, you would have made twice the annualized return of the S&P 500 Index, he says. If you had sold each year and reinvested in the new list, you would have made three times the S&P return. (10/27/05 Financial Times)

• A.T. Kearney examined the financial performance over the past three & six months ending 11/08 of 99 companies in 18 industries — companies that were authentically committed to sustainability outperformed their peers by an average of 15%. The performance differential worked out to an average of $650 million in market capitalization per company.

• If you compare companies that have appeared on the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List® for the past 9 years (this year’s results were not included because of press deadlines), you will find that 100 Best companies have out-paced the rest of their Russell 1000® brethren in three-year total return by 26 percent.

The market for “sustainability” products is already huge — and growing rapidly

• Morgan Stanley Sees $1 Trillion Green Market by 2030

• Procter & Gamble plans to sell at least $20 billion worth of environmentally improved products over the next five years

• The U.S. LOHAS “Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability” market for 2005 was over $400 billion

If you were all CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies and I asked who’s running a sustainable, responsible business — every hand in the room would go up

But — 99 out of 100 companies are not yet on track to create the future we need to ensure the health of our planet, our children, and grandchildren.

While in almost every boardroom in America companies are trying to develop a “green” business strategy, few understand what it means, let alone how to do it. 
Too few companies are seriously engaged in thinking deeply enough about how to make a positive impact

We need to stop thinking about how to be “less bad” and start thinking about how to be good!

The present paradigm of “doing less damage” will not succeed nor will it allow us to seize the opportunity that lies in front of us

What does this mean?

The world quite frankly is way too screwed up and in too much danger to aspire to merely:

Reduce CO2 emissions
- engage in less rain forest destruction
- operate fewer sweatshops
- put more recycled content in products
- pay less obscene wages to CEO’s
- offer health care benefits that only help you once you’re sick rather than keep you healthy

We need to create a whole new generation of businesses, business that have at their essence an entirely different purpose: to first and foremost make a positive contribution to society.

The good news is that this has begun to happen but it’s not fast enough or systemic enough.
The biggest challenges we face:

Most companies don’t understand sustainability at a systems level = environment + equity & justice

This thinking leads them to do good with their right hands while doing bad things with their left. 
Being less bad will never be good enough. 
I don’t have all the answers, but I do have a number of thoughts I’d like to share with you.
The answer to what we must do tomorrow lies in the question, “What does the world most need that we are uniquely qualified to provide?” 
To answer that question we must be willing to look for answers that may take 10, 20, or in some cases even 50 years to achieve — not something that business has ever been very good at.
 For Seventh Generation, those answers take the form of what we call global imperatives, and we aspire to have them guide every decision we make.

Seventh Generation Global Imperatives

• In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.

• We will be educators.

• Creating a world of consciousness, equity and justice, health and well-being.

• A world that is rich in value rather than a world that is rich in artifacts.

• Where everyone has the opportunity to develop to their full potential.

• And where we do everything from a systems perspective.

• So that all products and services are not just sustainable, but restorative to people and the planet.

So specifically what do we need going forward to address the challenges we face?

10 things we must do!

1. Systemic thinking – global warming will not be solved with carbon offsets

2. Full cost accounting/stop externalizing costs

3. Publicly-financed elections – get the money out of politics

4. National health care – not linked to employment & focused on prevention & wellness

5. Work in coalition – multi stakeholder initiatives – Wal-Mart brought together labor, environment, social justice, health care
- Palm Oil & Coconut oil initiatives

6. Invest in Education & Value Caring Professions: teaching, nursing, homemaking, elder care, etc.

7. Transparency

8. Activate consumers & overcome cynicism – vote with your wallets/purchasing power
- send letters & emails to both good & bad companies

9. Design business to develop their human resources to their full potential

10. Ownership not employment