In the first two of three articles on the sustainability challenge, we established that recent studies suggest that mankind currently uses more resources than the bio-capacity of the Earth can reproduce, and that by 2030, we will need to have a second Earth to provide the necessary resources for human consumption. We also investigated reasons that rationally explain unsustainable economic behavior and three perspectives (ignorant, pessimistic and optimistic-creative) toward the imminent sustainability challenge. Today, I would like to offer four theses on how business leaders, policy-makers, consumers and creative professionals should respond to the sustainability challenge.

1. Sustainability is a strategic business topic

Considering the current facts and projections concerning the scale of natural resource exploitation and environmental degradation, business leaders need to realize that focus on sustainable solutions will be a major trend affecting business over the next 20–30 years. Sooner or later, corporations will have to respond to the sustainability challenge by creating more meaningful and sustainable products and solutions, be it due to political pressures from policy-makers (e.g., by forcing companies to internalize the external costs related to the ecological impacts of production as well as recycling and secure end storage of harmful wastage) or — and this is more likely — be it due to a massive shift of consumer demand toward sustainable market offerings (like Toyota’s Prius hybrid car). To this end, smart companies start today to:

• raise internal awareness of the topic of sustainability;

• investigate the true costs of their products including external cost for a product’s ecological backpack and its recycling and disposal;

• explore how sustainability may affect their current industry and how they may reposition their firms to successfully ride the sustainability wave and turn it into an opportunity for new growth; and

• start focused R&D initiatives and innovation projects that target making their firm’s processes and market solutions radically more sustainable.

2. Policy-Makers and economists need to move beyond GDP as an indicator of prosperity

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country captures the amount of goods and services that an economy produces in a certain period. Most economists, politicians and businesspeople focus on this indicator to measure the economic prosperity and progress of a country. Unfortunately, the GDP concept has a number of disadvantages: E.g., it does not matter if the produced goods and services are actually needed, or how many resources were needed to produce them; the expensive clean-up of hazardous waste raises the GDP, leading to the absurd situation that the more waste an economy produces, the higher its GDP; moreover, the GDP concept does not consider aspects like happiness, health and life expectancy, or educational levels of a population.

In view of the global sustainability challenge, GDP is an adequate but insufficient indicator to measure the current economic prosperity and future viability of a country. It needs to be supplemented with other social and environmental indicators to measure the true state of affairs of a country, such as the Living Planet Index of the New Economics Foundation, or the Human Development Index of the United Nations. For example, China has just become the second-largest economy according to GDP, but only ranks 93 in the Human Development Index (behind Thailand at position 87).

3. The rise of mindful consumers

In recent years, more and more shopping malls have opened in Bangkok and other cities around the world. These malls are full of mindless consumers falling prey to the empty promises of marketing. The job of marketers is to convince you that you need and should buy their — often lousy — products, that shopping is good, that their products make you smarter, stronger, better-looking, younger, and richer, that having ever more things is better and makes you happier. Unfortunately, as noted in the first article, the average human already today consumes 1.5 times more resources than planet Earth can sustain. This means: We either continue to burden the environment and future generations or transform ourselves into mindful consumers. How can you become one of them?

• Stop asking the wrong question (“How much more do I need to have to be happy?”) and instead start asking: “What are the vital few items that I really need in my life to be happy?”

• Analyze your current consumption patterns, and then buy less but in better quality. For example, have a critical look at the clothes in your wardrobe. You will likely notice that you wear 20% of all your clothes 80% of the time. Why do you like those favorite pieces? What usage patterns explain your favorite style? In the future, when it comes to making a buying decision, check if a potential new purchase fits your personal style and usage pattern. Reduce and limit your wardrobe to a certain number of pieces — which gives you a chance to donate old, unwanted pieces away whenever you make a new purchase. Of course, the same holds true for other products or services that you use. Make sure that you only buy something if you regularly use it, and instead of collecting more and more, keep your overall possessions at a constant level.

• Consider the long-term implications of your actions. Imagine an encounter with your grandchildren and their children 30–40 years from now, who will bear the consequences of our exuberant lifestyle and excessive consumption. See yourself struggling for answers to their questions of “Why did you participate? Why didn’t you do something about it?” It’s not too late to avoid this uncomfortable future conversation. To this end, proactively ask: “How do my consumption choices and behaviors impact the future lives of my (great-)grandchildren?”

• Take actions toward sustainability beyond reducing your consumption, and look for ways to offset negative actions. E.g., you may donate to a green organization like the Plant A Tree Today Foundation, which will use your proceeds to plant new trees to offset the carbon emissions caused by your car.

4. Creative professionals need to step up and lead the parade

Bruce Nussbaum, BusinessWeek’s lead editor on innovation and design, wrote in a 2007 article: “Designers suck! Designers suck because they are ignorant, especially about sustainability. They design crap that hurts the planet!” Nussbaum is right, but I believe that it’s unfair to put the blame only on the designers.

As a creative business professional at the front end of change, regardless of whether you are a designer, a manager or a senior business leader, consider stepping up and moving toward the front of the sustainability parade. Understand the importance of the sustainability concept for business, accept the immense creative challenges it poses to all of us, and convert sustainability problems into opportunities to differentiate yourself and your business. Then, start using your creativity to generate ideas for more sustainable products, services and solutions, and your influence to bring these more meaningful, sustainable solutions to life.

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2011. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the title “Rising to the sustainability challenge, Part III” on 6 January 2011.