The New Sustainability Advantage: Seven Business Case Benefits of a Triple Bottom Line - Tenth Anniversary Edition

by Bob Willard

Overview

The New Sustainability Advantage shows how the benefits of the "triple bottom line" can increase a typical company's profit by at least 51 to 81% within five years, depending on the company's size and industry sector, while avoiding risks that could jeopardize its financial wellbeing.

Fully revised and updated, this 10th anniversary edition clearly demonstrates that, by focusing on seven powerful yet easy-to-grasp sustainability strategies, businesses can:

• Increase revenue
• Improve productivity
• Reduce expenses
• Decrease risks.

Expressed in clear business language and presented in an appealing, graphically rich format, this practical guide and the accompanying online Sustainability Advantage Simulator Dashboard enables executives to enter their own data and quickly identify high-leverage benefit areas for their organization. More detailed downloadable Sustainability Advantage Simulator Worksheets help them drill down into specific areas of interest and fine-tune the assumptions to their specific situation.

An indispensable tool for both sustainability champions and senior management, The New Sustainability Advantage proves that the quantified business case for sustainability is more compelling than ever before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781550925074
Publisher:	New Society Publishers
Publication date:	04/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Bob Willard gave up an award-winning, successful career in senior management at IBM to devote himself full-time to building corporate commitment to sustainability. Widely in demand as a speaker, he has delivered hundreds of presentations demonstrating the business case for sustainability to companies, consultants, academics and NGOs world-wide. Bob is the author of The Sustainability Champion's Guidebook, The Next Sustainability Wave, and the original edition of The Sustainability Advantage. He was recently appointed an inaugural member of the Sustainability Hall of Fame by the International Society of Sustainability Professionals.

Table of Contents

The New Sustainability Advantage – Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface
Introduction
Introduction
The Premise
Definitions, Terminology, and Frameworks
Definitions of a Sustainable Society
The Need for a Relevant, Aligned Business Case
Typical Companies and Time Horizons

Benefit 1: Increased Revenue and Market Share
Introduction
More Revenue from Current Products and Markets
Revenue from New Products and Markets
Revenue from Services and Leasing
Potential Benefit from Increased Revenue and Market Share

Benefit 2: Reduced Energy Expenses
The Lowest-Hanging Fruit
Saving Energy in Buildings: An Inside Job
Computing Energy Savings in IT
Driving Energy Savings in Transportation
Renewing Energy Savings with Substitutions
The Secret Sauce of Energy Savings: People
Energized Energy Expenses

Benefit 3: Rethinking Waste Expenses
In Bed with Embedded Waste
The Four-Factor Formula for the Full Cost of Waste
Company Efforts to Avoid Waste
Bonus: Revenue from Selling Waste
Waste Savings Help Fund Other ESG Projects

Benefit 4: Reduced Materials and Water Expenses
Saving Natural Capital Saves Financial Capital
Savings on Water
Savings on Consumables and Paper
Materials Savings Help Fund Other ESG Projects

Benefit 5: Increased Employee Productivity
Purpose Powers Performance
Engagement Drives Business Results
Increased Productivity from Reduced Absenteeism
Increased Productivity from More Telecommuting and Less Travel
Increased Productivity from Green Buildings
Increased Productivity and Innovation from Improved Collaboration
Increased Productivity and Innovation from Higher Engagement
Potential Increased Employee Productivity

Benefit 6: Reduced Hiring and Attrition Expenses
The War for Talent Still Rages
A Sustainable Enterprise is a Talent Magnet
Paying the Price for Voluntary Turnover
Healthy Hiring Savings on Involuntary Turnover and New Hires

Benefit 7: Reduced Risk
Standard 2-Part Business Case
Four Categories of Risk
Strategic Risk Mitigation
Operational Risk Mitigation
Compliance Risk Mitigation
Financial / Stock Price Risk Mitigation
The Burning Platform of Risks

Conclusion
Bottom-Line Benefits for M&D Inc.
Bottom-Line Benefits for Sam’s Services
What’s In It for You?
What about the Costs?
Why the Business Case Is Hopeless
Why the Business Case Is Perfect to Get Us to the Tipping Point
Notes
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Review Triple Pundit June 27, 2012 by Connie Kwan

Bob Willard’s 10th Anniversary book, The New Sustainability Advantage, is an update of the old with new examples. For sustainability non-believers, his book is a great first guide. It succinctly summarizes bottom-line benefits of sustainable practices in relevant business terms. In a Forrester survey of over 2000 executives regarding top 10 business priorities in 2011, 64% of executives selected revenue and customers, 44% selected cost reduction, while only 10% selected corporate social responsibility (CSR). For CSR professionals, messaging the revenue increase and cost reduction benefits of CSR efforts continues to be key in driving CSR implementation.

Willard points out seven business case benefits of a Triple Bottom Line and provides short examples of how to implement these practices. The benefits are:
1. Increased Revenue and Market Share
2. Reduced Energy Expenses
3. Reduced Waste Expenses
4. Reduced Materials and Water Expenses
5. Increased Employee Productivity
6. Reduced Hiring and Attrition Expenses
7. Reduced Risks
For sustainability practitioners, these benefits are nothing new. For everyone else, Willard’s guidebook provides a quick read to begin the CSR conversation. For every chapter, Willard first inspires the reader with examples of successes. For example, USPS reduced energy use by 29 percent from 2003 to 2010. Then, Willard provides first level information to trigger an analysis. For example, knowing that the top three energy use in commercial buildings are lighting (25 percent use), space heating (14 percent use), and space cooling (13 percent use) helps prioritize the energy reduction process. In some cases, Willard provides an illustrative financial analysis of potential savings at a small firm and at a large firm.

Since many of the seven benefits focus on energy, waste and materials, businesses with manufacturing and physical products will find Willard’s book most relevant. Customers also pay closer attention to sustainability on physical goods. A Cohn and Wolfe survey of consumers’ intent to buy green shows 53% support for ‘green’ groceries and 49% support for ‘green’ household products, compared to 15% support for ‘green’ restaurants and technology. Although customers pay less attention to sustainability from service-only businesses, benefits still exist. Service-only businesses depend heavily on employee performance to succeed, and thus will find sustainability benefit five and six, employee productivity and retention, very relevant. For example, a green office building provides up to 34% or $40 per square feet increase in productivity. Meanwhile, job hunters place a 30% emphasis on compensation and benefits and a 15% emphasis on organizational values and reputation. A business that cares about social and environmental returns will more successfully recruit and retain top talent.

Willard’s book is a useful introduction to the business case for sustainability. Gifting it to the whole leadership team can be a great way to bring everyone up to speed on applied sustainability basics. The book is a great conversation starter and Willard’s site provides useful slide sets and worksheets.

Review The Green Market, March 26, 2012 by Richard Matthews

The recently released book The New Sustainability Advantage, proves that the quantified business case for sustainability is more compelling than ever before. This is a revised version of the 2002 book The Sustainability Advantage. The new book makes an even more compelling business case for sustainability strategies than described in its 2002 version.

Based on recent case studies, the book shows that if a typical company were to use best-practice sustainability approaches already being used by real companies, it could improve its profit by at least 51% to 81% within three to five years, while avoiding a potential 16% to 36% erosion of profits if it does nothing. The fully revised business case is organized around seven easy-to-grasp bottom-line benefits that align with current evidence about the most significant sustainability-related contributors to:

increase profit

increase revenue

reduce energy expenses

reduce waste expenses

reduce materials and water expenses

increase employee productivity

reduce hiring and attrition expenses

reduce strategic and operational risks

The new version is a 90% rewrite of the 2002 version. Compared to the first version of The Sustainability Advantage, it has three other enhancements beyond the more compelling business case and the new list of benefits:
• It more rigorously estimates 14 risks to profit if a company chooses to opt out of the sustainability imperative.
• It calculates the potential bottom-line benefits for both a typical large corporation and a typical small enterprise.
• It is formatted in the same concise two-page, text-and-sidebar treatment of each subtopic that is used in two other books written by Bob Willard.
This excellent book is a must read for all business people.


This book is an invaluable read for sustainability insiders as well as first timers. The structure of The New Sustainability Advantage is so well thought through that it allows the reader to get the information they need quickly and efficiently. Beyond the impressive data and logic of the business case for sustainability, the real lessons lie in the humility, creativity, persistence and passion for which Willard has become internationally renowned.
—Dr. James Gray-Donald, Associate Vice-President, Sustainability Leader,
Sears Canada Inc.

In his book, The New Sustainability Advantage, Bob Willard articulates the business case for sustainability and the alignment of the for-profit mandate with the pursuit of environmental and social benefits. Using examples, he demonstrates that sustainability is a material source of business value when employed as a strategic framework for innovation, value creation, and organizational enhancement. Milton Friedman’s edict — that the business of business is business, and the creation of shareholder profit is its fundamental mandate — is just as true now as it ever was. Yet — as the reader discovers — what has changed is the context within which business operates, and thus how one bounds this edict in the pursuit of sustainable capitalism. The sources of value available to business and the competitive forces acting upon it are dynamic. We should not be surprised by shifts in business criteria, sources of value, or changes in the business activities required delivering a winning value proposition.
—Tyler J. Elm, Vice President, Business Sustainability, Canadian Tire Corporation

Through his new book, Bob gives us a more compelling business case for sustainable practices that help the bottom line by capitalizing on employees’ emotional engagement and culture change. His business case for investing in sustainability strategies is realistic, achievable, and profitable.
—Claude Ouimet, Senior V.P. General Manager for Canada and Latin America
at InterfaceFLOR


10 years after publishing his ground-breaking book, Bob Willard continues his thought-leadership with The New Sustainability Advantage, an even more compelling updated case for businesses of all size to reap the benefits of advancing sustainability. His thorough research and impeccable credentials have the power to both convince skeptics and arm champions. Bob’s well laid out balance of risk and opportunity inspires those businesses already addressing sustainability issues to push further and deeper for even greater triple-bottom-line impacts. By providing resources, worksheets and on-line material to empower businesses to do it themselves, Bob is proactively building the sustainable world he wants to live in.
—Barbara Turley McIntyre, Director Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship,
The Co-Operators Group Limited

Willard’s latest update adds some important ideas to the field of sustainability. He has assembled some of the best data and case studies available on why and how sustainability creates enduring value for companies. Before organizations can really commit and learn to compete on sustainability, they need to really understand all aspects of the business case for driving green deep into strategy. Willard’s book is an indispensable resource and an easy read, which doesn’t go together often.
— Andrew Winston, environmental strategist and co-author of the international bestseller Green to Gold

Going green is highly profitable. Bob Willard documents this fact in case study after case study: His analysis is spot on. Cutting carbon is really a proxy for cutting energy and electricity — hence cutting cost. With a good green story companies are raising revenue because consumers want to buy from a company that isn’t destroying the future of their children and grandchildren. Going green also mitigates risk against rising energy prices. So sustainability cut cost, raises revenue and mitigates risk. This book is a must read for every executive who is concerned about the bottom line — and their corporate license to operate.
— Jim Harris, International bestselling author, Former Leader, Green Party of Canada

From the Publisher