The Intersection

Sustainability is a word you’ll be hearing a lot more about in all that we do. Sustainability is both a threat and an opportunity for us living in the promo world. You may have heard of the Triple Bottom Line — People, Profit, and Planet. That’s the address for Sustainability.

When you excel in all three areas, you are meeting the needs of the present without compromising future generations. While people still want lots of products, they are now cognizant of the human factor – of the people actually producing the goods and services, and consumers do not want products at the cost of human suffering or indignity.  We are finally understanding that products come from our planet and return to our planet and the production, distribution and disposal of our “stuff” needs to be a life cycle that will leave a habitable planet for future generations.  And we also know that Profit is not a dirty word.  Profit is the life blood of any business enterprise and provides an economic benefit to the host society.  The difference is that the triple bottom line recognizes that all three are of equal importance and are integral to each other.

Corporate Social Responsibility is about how organizations uphold the interests of society through the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders.  This goes well beyond statutory obligations and compliance issues and gets to the core values of the people who make up the organization. 

The innovation around being a better corporate citizen has created new cost-cutting and money saving processes that are saving companies millions.  They are finding new sources of profit and margin in new previously undiscovered resources and alternatives to our old carbon-based models. Companies that are embracing and living out positive values are finding that they are winning the talent war.  The best and brightest new young people entering the workforce want to make a difference in the world. They believe that the work they do can have a positive impact and so are seeking out companies that will allow them to do so.  Often times, these young talented people are putting values ahead of salary and are willing to work for less if it means working for good.

Actually, I believe that there is the emergence of a Fourth Bottom Line.  There is People, Planet, Profit and Principles.  Principles or Purpose elevate value into the realm of Values and Meaning.  A culture of shared values attracts people who work for more than a paycheck and whose efforts create energy that attracts prosperity.  People of principles also attract similar suppliers and customers for a force of loyalty and love.

There is a role for the promotion industry to connect with strategies that are aligned with Corporate Social Responsibility.  We can encourage our own companies to identify and live out our core values.  We can recognize that the products that we put into our programs need to have a positive impact from cradle to cradle.  We can know that the people we are recognizing or motivating are looking for products that validate who they are as people.  We can encourage the inclusion of quality products that are made in a responsible manner that honors people and the planet.  

We can also be creating programs that encourage our employees and our customers to live in a more responsible manner.  Incentives are all about changing behaviors and providing motivation to act.  We can encourage social community program involvement among employees.  We can provide living, sustainable and natural incentives and gifts.  We can help companies create pride and a sense of shared values through activities like company gardens for creativity, team building and harvest.

There are opportunities to provide employee training, suggestions, rewards and meetings that provide more responsible use of resources that save money both for the employees and the company.  We can influence people to drive more economically, telecommute, ride share and provide better maintenance and tire inflation.  We can provide incentives for people to walk more, ride bikes to work and tread more gently on the earth.

There is a larger purpose to business than just making money.  The triple bottom line is showing that.  The quadruple bottom line will move us to even higher levels of potential.  Fred Kofman, in his stellar book, “Conscious Business” suggests that our activities in work and in life serve as a theatre for self-knowledge and self-actualization.  We discover who we are and what we stand for when we respond to business challenges.  Business is about much more than making money, more than winning.  Material success is a means to develop and express our highest nature.

We have the opportunity to make a difference in the world.  Our business is about moving people.  We can move them to live out their values in a way that makes all of us more valuable.