November 26, 2013
In our Q3 Executive Symposia we examined Advanced Energy Management Strategies & Renewable Energy in Corporate Real Estate. Those discussions and SR Inc’s supporting case-based Executive Guidance, Guidebooks & Tools provide powerful examples of Sustainable Optimization (towards greater energy productivity) and Sustainable Innovation (towards game changing renewable energy).
The pairing is deliberate. Robust systems of learning, like any flourishing organic system, exhibit both optimizing and innovating functions. As the celebrated biologist and innovation consultant, Janine Benyus, avers: business profits from “a conscious emulation of life’s genius.” As human beings, evolutionary science is increasingly recognizing that we are adapted to excel on both individual and collective levels. This is manifest in how individuals, business units and allied businesses create success in increasingly dynamic markets.
Managers of individual businesses regularly compete based on their relative strengths in driving continuous optimization. Leaders in business, however, must go beyond optimization to master strategic context and drive innovation to lead amidst disruptive technical, regulatory and market change. As Clayton Christensen detailed in The Innovator’s Dilemma and through-out his career: leaders cannot simply serve their best customers better because when the world changes, they may be altogether out of business.
Corporate Sustainability provides a strategic framework to organize and animate both continuous optimization and innovation. A commitment to Corporate Sustainability imbues a conventional commitment to continuous optimization with the energy of social and environmental relevance. Because top customers, talent, investors and regulators care. These same leaders, however, are beginning to recognize that optimizing towards ever greater eco-efficiency (i.e. wasting less space, energy, materials and water) is not nearly enough; it is simply not sustainable. Innovation is required.
Accenture’s 2013 survey of 1,000 CEOs in more than 100 countries and 27 industries reveals that although 93% continue to believe “sustainability is a key to success” and 63% believe “sustainability will transform their industry within 5 years”, only 33% believe that: “business is doing enough to address global sustainability challenges.” Fortunately, the globalization of sustainability conscious business and the rise of innovative technology and businesses are accelerating. And, indeed, they are linked as a recent Deloitte analysis reveals that 2009 corporate leaders in sustainability were 400% more likely to be recognized as top innovators and 600% more likely to be recognized as top innovators the following year.
We are moving to a digitalized, knowledge based economy enabled by disruptive innovations like the move to SaaS, Cloud Computing, Predictive Analytics, 3D Printing, Robotics and distributed renewable energy approaching grid parity. These innovations enable a radically de-centralized, more dynamic economy capable of dramatic progress towards more sustainable energy, manufacturing, transportation, buildings, IT and communications – just as leaders recognize the depth of our challenge. Seizing the opportunity to connect the need with the means is no less than necessary as businesses world-wide embark on the sustainable optimization journey only to recognize the need to master the art of sustainable innovation.
Jim Boyle is the President and CEO of Sustainability Roundtable, Inc. and is responsible for building sustainable value for SR Inc Member enterprises, employees and investors. For the last five years, Jim has led a full-time team of diverse experts officed across the U.S. assisting world-leading corporations and federal agencies in the move to greater sustainability. Follow Jim on Twitter
