Environmental considerations are more important than ever to businesses. Purchasing considerations of both consumers and businesses often include the environmental impact of a product and the environmental footprint of the product in daily usage.
Businesses most likely to flourish in today’s markets are those best able to minimise their environmental impact while maximising their social and economic outcomes.
Such businesses are embracing the principles of natural capitalism:
- Reducing waste: By reducing waste in the production process businesses are improving productivity. This increases return on investment, boosts short term profits, and ensures long term customer loyalty by being seen to comply with environmental best practice.
- Biomimicry: Many forward thinking businesses are designing production cycles able to replicate the closed-loop of natural cycles. Businesses collecting and reusing old products, from superseded lines, establish their environmental credentials and reduce costs for raw materials.
- Selling solutions instead of products: Focusing on products is an outdated business model. Successful firms are identifying customer needs and designing products to satisfy them; rather than designing products and identifying customers to buy them. This gives consumers the feeling they are being listened to. A business listening to consumers produces extraordinary customer loyalty.
- Profit through investment in natural capital: For a long time business investment in natural capital was deemed to be purely an expense. However, investment in the local environment has been shown to improve profits through brand awareness, customer loyalty, and the harmonisation of the business’ production and transport needs with improvements in the local area.
Growth and environmental sustainability are enmeshed. Businesses able to understand and capitalise on this combination are the ones most likely to thrive.