A few months ago Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review published a report Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point. It’s the results of a survey completed by managers and executives from companies around the world, asking them how they’re developing and implementing sustainable business practices. There’s lots of interesting stuff here so definitely worth a read. What I found interesting was the insight into ‘Harvesters’ – no not the buffet restaurant that always featured criss-cross chips in its adverts, but the report’s term for companies that say that their sustainability activities are contributing to their profits. The survey results show clear differences between the ‘Harvesters’ and companies who are further behind in their responsible business/sustainability efforts. Harvesters are:

• Three times more likely to have a business case for sustainability
• 50% more likely to have a CEO commitment to sustainability
• Twice as likely to have a separate function for sustainability
• 50% more likely to have a person responsible for sustainability within each business unit
• More than 2.5 times more likely to have a Chief Sustainability Officer

None of these points particularly surprising apart from the middle one about having a separate function for sustainability – from our experience this is the last thing a company needs if it is aiming to fully integrate sustainability into its strategy and operations. In actual fact, the wording here is a bit misleading... Whilst there are specific roles and functions to manage responsible business activities on a day to day basis, these have strong backing from CEOs and are supported by senior management committees; not so separate after all.

The real differentiator seems to be the existence of a strong business case for sustainability; in some cases they’ve even changed their business models. As Mark Vachon from GE ecomagination puts it “the idea is not to put your pencil down and quit...it’s to go back and figure out what new level of innovation is required to get to the right answer”.

The burning question is how to get to this level of commitment and pro-activity? What comes first: the CEO who sees sustainability as an opportunity or the business case that shows that it’s a no-brainer? And what happens if there isn’t either; there’s no desire to find a way to make it work? Not easy questions to answer on a general level... However, one thing that can only be helpful is for ‘Harvesters’ to vocalise the positive outcomes of the measures they’re taking, encouraging others to follow suit.

P.s can we drop the 'Harvester' label - it's not working for me!