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I’ve been working at the intersection of
business and sustainability for about
ten years now and the question I’ve been
asked the most often is this one what’s
the business case for sustainability
only they don’t really ask it like that
it’s more like yeah but Freya what’s the
business case the question by lying a
belief that there is none and for 10
years I’ve always wished I had a better
answer to that question a little bit
less efficiencies and savings a little
bit more revenue and top-line growth a
little bit less in the future business
will and a little more real money right
here right now because out there in the
wilds of mainstream business beyond the
sustainability bubble that I tend to
inhabit this conviction forged in the
fires of Milton Friedman that
sustainability and Penn business are
fundamentally competing forces is still
alive and well and this is a problem
because business must lead this change
business is the dominant institution of
the 21st century but if there’s no
business case business either won’t or
business just can’t now this is a
problem that’s kept me up at night a lot
over the past ten years how was I going
to find a better answer to this question
and one particular night it was keeping
me up was back in January of 2012 and I
was on deadline deadline on an essay on
this perennial topic of can purpose and
profit coexist and as I looked at what
I’d written I had to admit that there
was nothing there that was going to
convince a naysayer I needed a better
answer so I did what people do when it’s
late and they’re on deadline and they’re
desperate
I hit Google and after some frenzied
late-night googling I stumbled on the
information that Chipotle the North
American burrito chain and had 2012
revenues of two billion dollars
I know it says 1 billion here you’ll see
why that is in a minute I did a
double-take
that’s billion with a B Chipotle that
sauces all of its raw ingredients from
humane ethical sources and uses its
marketing dollars to advocate for
sustainable agriculture had 2 billion
dollars in annual revenue when it this
happened and why was no one talking
about it because there’s something about
that billion right in the language of
business that billion holds a special
mystique and companies that reach that
billion dollar revenue threshold take on
a whole new level of legitimacy and as
they should in fact less than zero point
zero zero zero zero six percent of
businesses ever make it to that billion
dollar mark and for a sustainable
business like Chipotle to do it well I
wondered if I might have found something
and further research was out through so
further research I was able to establish
that in fact Chipotle was now bigger
than Burger King that Titan of the
American strip mall and this is how in
fact the fates of those two companies
have diverged over the past five years
and you know what you’re looking at here
is Chipotle going through the roof while
Burger King flatlines and I called this
slide the new world order because as I
looked at this data I thought to myself
is this the moment those of us doing the
kind of work that I do have been waiting
for the moment when they’re new more
sustainable businesses take off and the
businesses that have failed to respond
fade away well it was a tantalizing
thought but of course one company does
not a case make but what I thought to
myself if there were more companies out
there that make a billion dollars or
more a year in out in revenue from
products or services with sustainability
or social good at their core because
people thought it couldn’t be done and
if I could prove that it could well I
might finally be able to stop being
asked that question every five minutes
for good so I did some digging and long
story short I was able to find that
there are now at least nine companies
globally with a billion dollars or more
in annual revenue from products or
services with sustainability or social
good at their core and here’s who they
are
so to pote Li we’ve already spoken about
next up is Nike with Flyknit you guys
familiar with flying it
it’s Nikes low waist high performance
shoe and I’ll talk a bit more about this
shoe in a minute because it’s a
brilliant example of how to build a
Green Giant
but that Footwear line generates over a
billion dollars a year now for Nike
Unilever the global packaged goods
company when Paul Polman the CEO came in
he established the Unilever sustainable
living plan a new corporate strategy for
the company this returned Unilever to a
period of growth after 10 years of low
to no growth and this was a strategy
that was about doubling the business
while having the carbon footprint and
increasing positive social impact IKEA
the global furniture company they
introduced while I was writing the book
actually a line of products for a more
sustainable life at home these are
products that help their shoppers live
more sustainably it’s things like solar
panels that you can buy at IKEA and
install on your own roof a billion
dollar revenue stream now and growing
fast GE with ecomagination ecomagination
is a line of products that a third-party
certified to save clients both energy
and money and this actually generated
twenty eight billion dollars for GE last
year I’m so a hugely hugely successful
line of things like jet plane engines
and fuel-efficient locomotives Tesla I’m
sure you guys are all familiar with
Tesla I’m guessing there folks in the
room who if they haven’t already got one
would love to have one I know I would so
this is the high performance electric
vehicle that prove the naysayers wrong
you can commercialize an electric
vehicle wholefoods
the first organic certified gross
grocery store in North America eleven
point seven billion dollars in revenue
Toyota with the Prius it’s been around a
long time but it’s still
continues to grow the original and still
the best perhaps hybrid vehicle and
finally Natura the Brazilian beauty
brand that empowers female entrepreneurs
in its value chain and sources many of
its raw ingredients from the Amazon so
these are they these are the green
giants the nine companies that generate
a billion dollars or more a year from
these products and services and together
they generate a collective 100 billion
dollars a year just from these more more
sustainable products and services.
[Music].