What are the Biggest Ways Sustainability Will Change Management Thinking?

Michael S. Hopkins wrote recently in the MIT Sloan Management Review about several ways sustainability is changing the way executives think. His fascinating article is part of a larger issue devoted to these sorts of sustainability questions. Some of Hopkins’ key points:

• PRODUCTIVITY The 16% Solution – Most people can point to reduced energy costs as the way sustainability boosts productivity (lower costs with same output). The bigger factor – the hidden factor – is worker productivity. Green workplaces with better light, thermal comfort and acoustic privacy drive a reported 16% increase in worker productivity. These gains are a lot greater than the simple energy saves everyone accepts. (Note: each company has its own data for productivity increase. Some are questionable because they’re reported by the associates themselves, but cut these reported gains in half and they’re still significant.)

• STRATEGY The Better Vantage Point (Or Seeing the System and Connecting the Dots) When you’re studying saves and revenues from sustainability efforts you often have to look across silos and measure total cost vs. total benefit. (See worker productivity increase from bricks-and-mortar investments in green buildings.) You are required to see how the pieces fit together and function

• INNOVATION You Can’t Get There From Here … But You Can From Somewhere Else – One of my favorite points from the article goes back to an earlier post I made about sustainability and innovation. The author states “Sustainability challenges demand innovation that’s more iterative, more patient, requiring more diverse inputs…It creates different conversations, raises different questions.”

• ADVANTAGE First Adapters Will Win Being the first in the market means you create Brand equity that drives a truly sustainable advantage. Quick, name a hybrid car. Did you say Prius? Bet you did. Can you name five others? Didn’t think so.

Take a look at this provocative issue and read about other ways sustainability is changing management thinking.