It is essential to put the customer at the heart of the (sustainability) proposition because it is in the use of products from cars to buildings over their lifecycle that the benefits of sustainability can truly be realised
There is no Plan(et) B. Until someone solves that, we need to sustain Plan(et) A and create a win-win proposition for the environment. The problem statement is clear as per many published reports and climate change is as real as what we see around us.
Einstein once said: “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them”. A new awareness is needed to acknowledge the urgency of the problem, its compounding nature and consequences, which means taking our foot off the accelerator, slamming on the brakes and then trying to reverse the situation we have come to inhabit today. This does not mean that the path to sustenance is one of abstinence and austerity. Win-win propositions can be created to build a sustainable future.
Sustainability is a shared value and a collective responsibility. A framework of the ‘triple bottom line’ (social, economic and environmental measures) is often used to define this term. Specific to business model innovation for corporations, I find a more comprehensive framework across people, process, partnerships, product, profit and planet beneficial to work with.
People - Building awareness, knowledge, skill and livelihoods.
Process - Turning compliance and regulation into an opportunity and making value chains sustainable.
Partnerships- Ensuring every member of the value chain shares the collective responsibility.
Product – Designing and building sustainable products/services over their lifecycle.
Profit – Innovating new business models to sustain growth responsibly and ethically.
Planet – Minimising our environmental impact and reducing dependence on limited resources.
The above six can be toggled with to generate value added interdependencies and create win-win propositions. For example, if you invest in people and skill building, you are likely to have a better talent base, which enables you to build better products and hence make higher profits.
If your process can help convert compliance and regulation into an opportunity, the likelihood of innovation in your business model may be higher. Hence, you may stay ahead of your competition. When every member of your value chain shares the collective responsibility towards sustenance, the cumulative adverse impact on the planet and our environment is minimised.
When you design and build sustainable products, you might be passing on tangible benefits to consumers from a lifecycle perspective while doing the right thing for the planet. Similarly, if you run your business ethically and responsibly, you give back to your brand, which in turn has a halo effect for your people, customers, market and the industry at large. The opportunities are endless to correlate and generate value by connecting these dots in numerous ways.
Today, it is encouraging to see several businesses incorporate green design parameters and do the right thing for the environment. However, more can be done at an ecosystem level to create greater collective good. It is essential to put the customer at the heart of the proposition because it is in the use of products from cars to buildings over their lifecycle that the benefits of sustainability can truly be realised. Efficiency in terms of quantifiable tangible returns is key to solving for this proposition.
Referencing the competitive Indian automobile market where the first question a customer asks is “What fuel efficiency will my car give me on a litre of petrol?". What if we asked the same of all our products from appliances to buildings and everything in between? If this were possible, then a competitive self-sustaining market could be created and people would be willing to pay for the investment and innovation required to make every product across scale greener and more efficient.
Many others would enter the market spurring innovation. Customers, too, would partake in doing their bit for the environment over its lifecycle and hopefully we would together make for a stronger positive impact on the planet. This would ring true to another statement that Einstein made “in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” to create unique and exponential win-win propositions for our sustenance in this case.
(Anubhav Gupta, chief executive officer, Vikhroli, Chief ESG, Sustainability & CSR Officer, Godrej Properties.)