The long-term view

If there is one word that has raced up the popularity charts with anyone and everyone, it is the word 'sustainability'. Everyone sprinkles a dash of sustainability to whatever they do, sell or recommend. And now it is catching the fancy of the corporate world, thanks to the efforts of the late Ray Anderson, the carpet-tile philosopher and corporate guru of sustainability.

It was a chance reading of Paul Hawken's Ecology of Commerce that turned Anderson from top carpet maker to eco-carpet maker. A chapter on extinction of species. He decided that his company Interface would leave no print on the blue or green carpet of the planet. No emissions, no waste! And he did it. Renewables rather than fossil fuel; carpet tiles out of carbohydrate polymers rather than petroleum; and recycling old-carpet sludge into pellets that could be used as backing were some steps.

By 2007 the company was, he reckoned, about halfway up “Mount Sustainability". Greenhouse-gas emissions by absolute tonnage were down 92% since 1995, water usage down 75%, and 74,000 tonnes of used carpet had been recovered from landfills. The $400m he was saving each year by making no scrap and no off-quality tiles more than paid for the R&D and the process changes. As much as 25% of the company’s new material came from “post-consumer recycling".

A serious business can be defined by the sutainable practices it follows. Simply because it shows the business has a long term vision too.

Back in 1983, the Brundtland Commission convened by the UN, defined ‘Sustainable development’ as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Also for businesses.

Sustainable goods and services may cost a little more if viewed from narrow, short-term perspective. But, over the long term, sustainability is proven to be financially attractive.