The Sustainable Organization

The world is moving toward sustainability, whether one defines it in terms of ecological sustainability or simply as survival.

The bottom line is no longer sufficient to be competitive and to survive. It is now essential to think in terms of the triple bottom line or even the quadruple bottom line, which incorporates the vastly emergent sentiment of spirituality that is latent in humanity, in order to be positioned for the new emerging economy of the future.

A new empowered generation is emerging at the same time as the largest ageing population in history is growing and seeking greater longevity and a meaningful legacy. Energy, infrastructure, social investing, and community stakeholder management are now no longer fringe elements of an emerging socioeconomic frontier. They are here and now.

These elements of our economy and society are developing at amazing speed, with dizzying complexity and global consequences.

The biggest corporations, government, nonprofits and the exploding world of entrepreneurship are all part of the biggest movement in recent history, toward a new awareness, a new pragmatism, a new mandatory set of operating principles and metrics that will define those who are successful and those who fail.

The ideal of sustainability is now a part of human consciousness and it is here to stay. Those who were the radicals of the past are now the entrepreneurs and experts of the here and now. Those who dreamed of energy independence, alternative energy, organic products and green housing, efficient infrastructure and social good are now becoming the world’s leaders, taking action, making change and mandating new social imperatives. Books on entrepreneurship, ecological innovation, and the new realms of quantum physics, spirit and consciousness have never been more popular or more well read. And change now spreads at the speed of the Internet.

This new world requires the emergence of organizations, projects, innovations and leadership that understand the rapid and massive groundswell of change and make the challenging decisions to adapt, to change, to grow and to innovate in order to seize the opportunity and to become the corporate, governmental and social leaders of the next major economic cycle of sustainable economics.

This is not the land of silver bullets and easy solutions.

It is instead a frontier of opportunity paved in research, organizational design, leadership, management practices, branding and product development, compensation systems and operating metrics that redefine the face of global competition and organizational development. It is hard work, it is complex, it demands new forms of collaboration and it requires knowledge, systems, processes and information. The world is no longer walking toward this new future; it is running, because the economics of the past no longer sustain the paths of the past.

The Sustainable Organization

The Sustainable Organization™ is a new form of organization. It is the organization of the future that understands that sustainability is not a corporate option, whether from the standpoints of ethics, social responsibility, branding or profits. It is survival.

The new face of global competition is emerging in sustainability. Smart leaders understand that sustainability is not idealistic fancy, but hits directly to the bottom line. Those who hope to capture stimulus dollars, to attract top talent and to ride the next wave of growth as our world emerges from its current circumstances are embracing the investment, work, transformation and commitment that it takes to become the sustainable organizations of the next major wave of economic growth.