All great businesses do two things well: capitalize opportunity and limit risk. As we work to build sustainable businesses, educational institutions, and government entities, we often focus on the tactical best practices that save money, engage stakeholders, enhance efficiencies, and strengthen brand. Underlying these strategies is the cardinal requirement for profitable and long-lasting success; anticipation.
In a recent white paper, KPMG explored “ten sustainability megaforces” in the natural and human ecosystems that increasingly impact long term opportunities and the cost of doing business. The study, Expect the unexpected: Building business value in a changing world, reinforces the resource pressures, regulatory evolution, and increasing volatility challenges for the coming decades. Most strikingly, KPMG’s research concludes that the external environmental costs of 11 key industry sectors increased 50% from $566 to $846 billion in the eight year period from 2002 to 2010. This represents a doubling of these costs every 14 years.
The ten megaforces described by KPMG are: climate change, energy and fuel, material resource scarcity, water scarcity, population growth, wealth, urbanization, food security, ecosystem decline, and deforestation. Applying best practices in sustainable theory is a strategy that addresses short term goals for enhancing profitability, engagement, and brand equity. It also is a best practice philosophy that directly contemplates and anticipates the megaforces identified by KPMG, and allows its adherents to identify opportunities and reduce risk in an increasingly volatile and complex world.
