In our lecture the other day we had a guest speaker, James Tansey, and he talked about sustainability in a business sense. One of the things that had caught my mind and stuck with me throughout was the idea of products made in sustainable ways are not always the most profitable. After thinking for a time on this, I thought that in this day and age that it is possible to become more profitable and sustainable. People nowadays are trying to be as sustainable as possible. This is can be illustrated through types of cars being purchased, clothes that are made in sustainable ways, etc. The pro-environment trend has become huge in the past decade or so, as more and more people come the realization of the environmental trouble that we are in. Firms and companies can use this as a significant point of difference in their value propositions. If firms do have sustainable ways of producing their goods and advertise that and market that to its consumers, it could pull in a huge number of people to buy their product rather than their consumers products. In my own personal experience, my parents will go out of their way to buy products that have the little seal on them signifying those products were made in sustainable practices. My family and myself will pay the extra couple of cents or dollars for environmentally friendly products. From the firms perspective if there costs are a little more but will sell more products and take up more of the market share they will become more profitable than their competitors, while also helping the environment, it is a clear win-win.
http://creatingwhatmatters.co.nz/articles/10-ways-it-improves-business/