Building a sustainable enterprise economy

What role can businesses play in forging a peaceful and sustainable future for the earth and its inhabitants? This was the topic discussed by a group of academics, entrepreneurs, activists and global corporations at the ‘Sustainable Enterprise’ conference, held at the Eden project in Cornwall last week.

Those who attended discussed strategies and practical ideas to help businesses address some of the challenges of the twenty-first century, including: population surge and increased competition for limited resources, globalization, political violence, pandemics and climate change.

Over the course of the two day conference the idea emerged that the role of the corporation was changing. Sharing her vision for a sustainable enterprise economy, professor Sandra Waddock, from the Boston College Centre for Corporate Citizenship, said maximising shareholder wealth was no longer the sole purpose of the corporation. She said firms need to ask new questions about their role in society.

Customers expect businesses to be better corporate citizens, said Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project, ‘within 30 years almost every major company will be a social enterprise,’ he predicted. He compared the significance of the current cultural shift towards social and environmental responsibility to the medieval Renaissance or Reformation cultural movements.

Mads Øvlisen, chair, Novo Nordisk and member of the UN Global Compact—a voluntary corporate responsibility initiative—detailed the prospect of more businesses becoming social enterprises. Within a well supplied market customers can easily choose between products he argued. ‘Those companies whose bottom line has improved over the last 20 years have all conducted business in a financially, environmentally and socially responsible manner,’ he said.

Øvlisen added: ‘I feel like a traitor when I use the competitiveness argument. To me it was never about that. We can never rely on financial results as the sole driver, we need to believe and feel passionate about spearheading the change.’

“I feel like a traitor when I use the competitiveness argument. To me it was never about that. We can never rely on financial results as the sole driver, we need to believe and feel passionate about spearheading the change.

Mads Ovlisen, chair, Novo Nordisk and member of the UN Global Compact

CSR reporting standards are now an accepted part of risk management. While regulation is likely to be part of the solution, companies should think about moving beyond compliance, added Waddock.

The practical solutions that where discussed involved taking incremental steps and embedding CSR throughout the entire organisation. Mark Swilling, co-founder of the sustainability institute at Stellenbosch University, described his work in setting up sustainable communities in South Africa.

Having a well engaged workforce and therefore retaining key talent was listed as another principal benefit to the sustainable enterprise. James Smith, chairman of Shell UK, said: ‘Getting the best people into out organisation is the fundamental determinant of long term success.’

Advocates of sustainable development say it’s an effective response to the challenges of the next century but radical change is needed to match the size of the problem. Doing things fundamentally differently, however, is unlikely to sit well with many in the business community. While human nature impels us to act, assuming a war footing isn’t always easy when the immediate danger is unclear.

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