Fred Luks, economist, sustainability researcher, and publicist was the second speaker at Greiner Packaging’s Innovation Day 2022. Talking about ‘Sustainability’ he said:
“Today, sustainability means not using up your natural capital. In 1987, the United Nations adopted the description of the concept of sustainable development, described by the Bruntland Commission Report as ‘development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’
“So, this means that sustainability should mean a good life for everybody in the world, without ruining the planet and the other things we need for the future. But neither of these conditions is met. We have many people living in poverty, but at the same time – especially in the western world. – we’re living in a manner that destroys our natural capital.
“It’s always about balancing three dimensions: economy; ecology; and social issues. And the trick is that sustainability needs balancing. If you only focus on profits, a business won't be sustainable, especially when you have to also focus on ecological and social issues.”
Fred Luks discussed the links between the general goal of a societal transformation toward sustainability, and the business challenge of living up to this agenda. He also emphasized the crucial role that innovation and culture have to play in this process.
Sustainability as transformation
“In 2015, the General Assembly of the United Nations urged action on sustainable development to create pathways for global transformation and introduced its 17 sustainable development goals,” said Fred Luks. “Transformation is change, and we have to change to mitigate or adapt to climate change. We became wealthy by a certain model of living, but now we have to learn fast that we have to adapt it and that we have to take sustainability much more seriously.
“So, what about innovation? On the corporate level, innovation is an indispensable condition for sustainability. At the same time, the goal of sustainability can be a crucial driver of innovation.
To manage change, we need to distinguish three rules for sustainability. First is innovation, but we also need exovation and tradition. Exovation is the flip-side of innovation and means we need to get rid of things. Between innovation and exovation is tradition, things we value and cherish such as democracy, freedom, freedom of speech, and liberty.
“From a business perspective, there are two valuable things. Externally, it's the changing of markets, and customer preferences including people caring about the environment. On the other hand, there's a profound change in the conditions under which you do business with respect to sustainability, because on a state, European, or international level, there are changes to the framework conditions and legislation. Internally, you need strategies and plans, and you need reporting. However, without changing the culture of the company, you won't get anywhere. Peter Drucker famously said: 'culture eats strategy for breakfast’, and anyone who works on change in a company knows that that is very true. One definition of culture is ‘what people do when nobody's looking’.
“Changing corporate culture is absolutely crucial to create momentum for sustainability in a company.”
Watch recording
Watch the recording of Fred Luks' Innovation Day 2022 presentation - Sustainability as managed change
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