The article describes the increasing importance of incorporating sustainable practices into companies’ operations and HR departments. Sustainability is an emerging “business megatrend”¹ that will “profoundly affect the competitiveness—and perhaps even the survival—of [executives’] organizations”¹. Business leaders tend to veer away from addressing sustainability because they are not certain whether it has any tangible future. By analyzing prior megatrends, executives can understand how to “craft the strategies and systems…to gain advantage”¹ in this emerging one named Sustainability. The article concludes that managers “can no longer afford to ignore sustainability as a central factor to… competitiveness”¹.

I have a growing interest in sustainability and how to integrate it into business, so this article pointed out some important information that I also believe is imperative to existing and emerging businesses. Failure to realize that sustainability is becoming just as important as other megatrends, such as quality and IT advancements, will most likely result in a negative response in business because consumers are increasingly valuing the implementation of sustainability in corporations’ internal and external operations. For example, sustainability is important to my family, so I might be inclined to do business with a more sustainability-oriented organization than an “ignorant” counterpart. I want to contribute to this emerging megatrend, and I am excited to see how it will develop in the future.

Sustainability... more important than you think

References

1. Lubin, David A., and Daniel C. Esty. “The Sustainability Imperative – Harvard Business Review.” Harvard Business Review Case Studies, Articles, Books. Harvard Business Publishing, May 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. <http://hbr.org/2010/05/the-sustainability-imperative/ar/1>.