Conference Presentation, Fireside Chat
MI Forum: Sustainable Excellence: The Future of Business in a Fast-Changing World
- Sustainability is predicted to evolve from a peripheral concern to a central, non-negotiable element of core corporate missions, with the specific expectation that by 2020, the concept of "Sustainable Excellence" may be redundant due to its ubiquity.
- Companies are expected to maintain and deepen resource efficiency and sustainability investments during financial downturns, with the anticipation that the resource crunch will prove more enduring than immediate economic recessions.
- Specific corporate strategies include Unilever aiming to double growth over the next 10 years while halving absolute natural resource consumption, Ford adapting to car-sharing and efficient internal combustion engines, and Nike integrating sustainability into product design briefs as an innovation catalyst.
- Structural shifts in governance are foreseen, including securities regulators mandating consideration of medium-to-long-term sustainability risks, institutionalizing fiduciary duty to include sustainability, and conditioning executive compensation on sustainability performance.
- Business models are expected to shift toward defining value by the need satisfied rather than the product made, with a rise in "unlikely partnerships" between corporations and NGOs, such as between Walmart and the Environmental Defense Fund, or Coca-Cola and Greenpeace.
- Regional and sector-specific trends indicate Indian companies making poverty alleviation central to their missions, utilities advocating for climate action to ensure certainty for long-term capital expenditures, and state-owned enterprises in China, South Africa, and Brazil increasingly participating in global sustainability efforts.
- Macro-economic predictions suggest the West may experience a decade of low growth, natural resource prices will face pressure for half a century, and China's impact on carbon emissions could worsen significantly within the next 10 years.
- Technological and investment landscapes will see internal venture funds from major firms like Cargill, Nike, and Unilever focusing on Silicon Valley innovation, alongside continued federal investment in renewable energy by agencies like ARPA-E where success rates are mixed.
- Persistent barriers include the discrepancy between consumer survey data and actual purchasing behavior, described as "seven billion barriers," as well as the global exposure of socially responsible practices where localized efforts cannot be isolated.
- The speakers express an overall positive outlook regarding business contributions to a sustainable future, predicting that while the trajectory is clear, the timeline for full integration may extend beyond the current decade due to short-term economic thinking.
- Geopolitical and resource constraints such as protectionism and the loss of natural resources are identified as potential "brick walls" that could halt economic growth unless companies adapt to create widely shared prosperity.