Conclusion

If It’s Not Profitable, It’s Not Sustainable

To continue to accept these realities is absurdity.

To not do anything about them is obscenity.

To not profit from the unexpected solutions that sustainability offers would be humankind’s greatest missed opportunity.

—Paul Anastas

For the better part of a decade, firms have led the charge with sustainability initiatives designed to address the climate crisis. Efforts have largely centered around supply chains and sourcing, reduction of carbon emissions, recycling, and support of local communities—all spokes on the wheel that supports the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. But can these efforts really survive if they remain separate from a focus on profitability?

One of the reasons why climate change and sustainability get so much attention these days is that the economic shock to businesses has become so high. So high that even the Big Four accounting firms are finally auditing ESG (environmental, social, governmental) metrics.

Our hope in writing this book and offering the Sustainability Scorecard is that more firms will begin recognizing that environmental and financial sustainability go hand in hand, that by leveraging our framework they can stay ahead of industry trends with unexpected solutions that create long-term business value.

In the short term, it won’t be easy, we know. The actions firms and leaders take today to integrate meaningful and sustainable innovation into their systems will require them not only to challenge their perceptions but also to invest intellectually and financially in redesigning current systems. Furthermore, sustainable solutions don’t yet exist for all the products and processes that drive our current economy. Oh, and the status quo will lie through its teeth to preserve itself.

There are several scorecards out there that approach climate-change economics and business decision-making from an investment standpoint, a value realization perspective, or a risk management perspective; however, none of them are driven by science. Each of the chemistry and engineering principles that we have leveraged to create the Sustainability Scorecard has been peer-reviewed scientifically, giving it a degree of credibility that no other scorecard has. You can be assured that progress on the Sustainability Scorecard metrics is really moving your firm toward greater sustainability. Our hope is that seeing how the actions you take actually move its metrics—while providing innovative new solutions—will give you and your firm the determination to stay the course. And to scale.

The Role of Unexpected Solutions in Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, the United Nations unveiled the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to provide global audiences with an overarching framework toward which efforts could be aligned. We believe that the most impactful role in accelerating progress toward the SDGs lies in systematic scaling of unexpected solutions.

Unexpected solutions, as we have discussed earlier in this book, are unique for several reasons:

▪ Unexpected solutions are leapfrog solutions. They have, in many respects, maximized the F-factor—the qualitative metric that we discuss in the scorecard. F-factor is a forward-looking metric to better understand the value proposition of any new product or process, in which to maximize function, the weight of the inputs has to be minimized. What this forecasts for product and process of the future is to provide directionality to our innovation efforts. Specifically, the F-factor indicates that innovation should occur in such a manner that we achieve all the benefits of the product or process without the inputs ever existing. In the case of communication services, this led to smartphones—wherein all the functionality of the telephone is present without the presence of telephone wires and other infrastructural elements.

The life-cycle benefits of such as solutions are also optimized, as these solutions typically have minimized costs over the entire life cycle of the solution.

▪ These solutions are inherently sustainable and fulfill the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry. For example, unexpected solutions rely on renewable resources, a lever in favor of a bio-based economy. Although chemical production only accounts for 5%-7% of petroleum consumption, petroleum sources represent over 98% of chemical feedstocks. Unexpected solutions find alternative routes to powering performance.

▪ They are usually able to achieve multiple goals simultaneously, in comparison to traditional solutions that align with only one major and/or a few minor problem statements. In such a scenario, big-picture thinking—such as the SDGs—can clearly articulate the various parameters along which the value is provided.

▪ Unexpected solutions further equity by solving particularly wicked problems for various industries. For example, inherently safe chemical sites prevent accidents that would ultimately affect entire geographies. Reducing the social and environmental impacts of “forever chemicals” (or eliminating them altogether) from manufacturing of everyday products has the potential to significantly reduce the total cost of care for large population subsets in healthcare and to improve the public health outcomes for vulnerable communities, all while improving financial outcomes for organizations.

These unexpected solutions are operational game changers and enable firms to realize financial benefits—in the form of reduced operational expenses, additional revenue streams, additional market share, increased profitability, or even all of the above. This coupled with social and environmental profitability expands firm performance along the new definition of performance. These outcomes not only exponentially increase the overall profitability of firms but usher firms into new economic territory that aligns their outcomes with the SDGs.

Sustainability does not belong in risk management, and it’s not a niche marketing advantage, although that’s the way many boards and leaders see it today. It is a business imperative, a strategy and operations input with compelling financial benefits. But we should not sit back and accept this reality. We need to move beyond risk management in order to create real, transformational, revenue-generating opportunities from sustainability, rather than just playing whack-a-mole with audit reports. We need to design our products and processes to be sustainable—and we need to profit from doing so. Anything less will be humankind’s greatest missed opportunity.