Sustainability

Sustainability has unquestionably emerged as a mega-trend in the United States, fundamentally affecting how companies plan for the future, what products and services they provide, and how they relate to their consumers and other stakeholders. Long seen as an issue of tangential concern, sustainability – still a term with multiple definitions, but generally meaning a focus on reducing waste, increasing efficiency, and the overall strategy of marrying environmental stewardship with economic growth - has become an issue of strategic importance.

This year IBM moved from No. 3 to No. 2 on CRO Magazine’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list.  IBM is the only company on the list to achieve a Top 5 ranking in each of the last four years.  How is one of America’s largest public corporations also one of its most value-driven?  In this post, we’ll look at IBM’s corporate citizenship work, and also think about how IBM manages to cut through the status quo and create real leadership.

Smarter Ideas

It is hard not to be optimistic about the future of sustainability in the U.S. business sector. Ten, fifteen years ago, sustainability was a side-concern, a box that often was checked with a glitzy ad campaign. Now, sustainability is a crucial competitive advantage that businesses want to incorporate into their core strategies. Why? Sustainability is a catalyst for minimizing waste, saving money, and inventing new goods and services.

This week we're down in Atlanta for our annual National Conference - Forecast: Corporate Citizenship and America’s Future. Over the next three days we're bringing together the foremost voices in corporate social responsibility (CSR) for a solutions-focused discussion on how to address the tough challenges facing America today and what we can do together for the future. 

A critical reason why cities and towns are able to be at the forefront of sustainable development is their ability to engage a broad swath of stakeholders and create effective partnerships. Communities are able to harness talent, energy and capital in innovative ways that drive progress. Through partnerships, communities are often able to achieve results that would otherwise be unattainable.