People, planet and profit
Economic sustainability is considered elemental in any business - that is why most businesses come to live in the first place. We are part of larger systems, however, such as Earth and humanity, to name two. And if it comes to designing well, we have to consider all stakeholders in the game, don't we?
That is where environmental and social sustainibility comes is.
Both terms are widely discussed in academic papers since decades but only the last few years brough the attention of the mass media. Opinion leaders and influencers started to talk about it, so sustainability as a major topic arrived to the agenda of the everyday discussions even at dinner tables.
Environmental sustainability as a domain is well elaborated by now, a myriad of professionals push out articles day by day on the topic, hoping to generate actions. But this ocean of information also makes it difficult to see what actions really count. In broad sense, the idea behind sustainability as coined already in 1987 is that any sustainable development has
to meet “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Social sustainability is less clean-cut and less understood. Some approach sees separate sustainability domains that incorporate different topics. From this point of view social sustainability is about, among others, social equity, livability, health equity, community development, social responsibility, community resilience.
A more recent definition considers every type of sustainability, such as ecological, economic, political and cultural one, to be be social. It argues that humans are embedded into these domains, which means
social sustainability embraces all human activities.
Designing a product or service responsibly means that also environmental and social effects (created values or caused harms) should be included. By a more formal definition,
“We define sustainable value propositions as a promise on the economic, environmental and social benefits that a firm’s offering delivers to customers and society at large, considering both short-term profits and long-term sustainability.”
Long story short, as a general rule you have to consider people and planet (besides profit) in every business.
Fortunately, when it comes to sustainable business models, there are bountiful resources to lean on, for example here.
Should your need support to find the most fitting sustainable business model for you, let me know, and we can work out together how you can build a business that is profitable and responsible.