How important is sustainability for businesses?

Sloan Management Review (SMR) thinks it is important.

8 Reasons (You Never Thought Of) That Sustainability Will Change Management

1. Planning. It is inevitable. You will become news if you dont handle it.

2. Productivity. 16% improvement in productivity

3. Reputation A Proxy For Management Quality.

4. Strategy. You might learn something about your organization in this process.

5. Innovation. It might lead to increased pace and quality of innovation.

6. Coordination. It is necessary due to inter-disciplinary nature of the problem.

7. Partnering. Will increase trust in the partners.

8. Advantage First Adapters Will Win.

1 and 8 are reflective of changing mindsets and market place. These are basically externally imposed requirements. 2 has to do directly with the bottomline. Interestingly 3 is about the management's sensitivity to other people's perceptions. They want to be seen a good player. There is a bit about business interest too. Today it is hard to attract people to organizations that are not seen as good players and dont have open sharing culture. The rest are secondary or spillover effects that have value too.