【5】A sustainable business

a sustainable business means a business that can thrive in the long term. Sustainability is bigger than a green product line, bigger even than a heartfelt but occasional nod to ongoing efforts to save the planet. Imagined and implemented fully, sustainability drives a bottom-line strategy to save costs, a top-line strategy to reach a new consumer base, and a talent strategy to get, keep, and develop creative employees. True sustainability has four equal components:

• social, to address conditions that affect us all, including poverty, violence, injustice, education, public health, and labor and human rights
• economic, to help people and businesses meet their economic needs—for people: securing food, water, shelter, and creature comforts; for businesses: turning a profit
• environmental, to protect and restore the Earth—for example, by controlling climate change, preserving natural resources, and preventing waste
• cultural, to protect and value the diversity through which communities manifest their identity and cultivate traditions across generations