Does Sustainability only means to have a green paint or is it more?

by Björn Günther

Have you ever thought about growing your own farm at home in your garden or even if you have a flat in a larger city on the roof of your house? No? Why not? 

There exist places in the world that have such a “farm” on their roof, such as McCormick Place in Chicago. The largest convention center in North America grows their own vegetables and fruits on their roof and serves it directly to the customers after harvest. 

If we look on this idea in more detail we should talk about sustainability. 

“Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony that permits fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.” 

(by Environmental Protection Agency)

The basis of sustainability is that we are making sure that we have and will continue to have, the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment.

If we try to go deeper and have a look on sustainability then we have to mention some other things such as the operation of all electronic devises through wind power for example. McCormick Place is only one example who tries to build an environment that is friendly and provides humanity and an infrastructure that supports to do business.

In fact I will focus on the resources we are going to use every day. These Key Resources are the most important assets required to make a company or daily life work. As we already know these resources allow a company to create and offer a Value Proposition, reach markets and maintain relationships with Customer Segments and finally earn revenues. These Key Resources I’m talking about describe certain aspects, physical, intellectual, human and financial. First we should focus on the human aspect, because without the sustainable thinking of ourselves, it isn´t possible to provide a sustainable life in future.

That leads me to another aspect to talk about and what we should not forget in our own projects – the environment and the sustainability. Nature and all its resources is another aspect for me we should involve in the Key Resources. While improving our entrepreneurial concepts every day we should also focus on nature and all resources we are going to involve and use in our companies. Make sure that the resources you are going to use, you will give back to the nature and especially to the following generation, like some companies it already do. I would like to recommend you two companies and their sustainable strategies. First you should have a look on the H&M Website and it’s Conscious. 

It is very nice to see how H&M tries to implement a sustainable life all over their supply chain. Another example is Siemens.

Both companies are perfect examples to get an overview how sustainability looks like in the business context and how management can implement sustainable thoughts and doings.

The use wind power to provide all technical devices within company buildings with electricity and in addition to that to reduce the consumption of electricity, by turning off all lights in rooms and escalators that aren’t needed in the moment can be the first step to be sustainable in the daily life. Think about your daily doings and try to make your doings more sustainable, by turning off the lights, air conditioning or walking or driving by public transport instead of driving by car. Furthermore the innovative and flexible place in Chicago that I mentioned in the beginning uses its roofs for farming which allows using solar energy and rainwater to grow vegetables and fruits which they directly serve to their customers, without wasting additional fuel due to transportation. 

       

To sum up I would suggest involving sustainable thoughts in entrepreneurial projects and personal life to be fair and friendly to our environment and to reach more customers who already spend more time on sustainable thoughts.