Misconceptions About Sustainability Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. By: Mark Kozak S Mark Kozak is the president of BEAM Strategic Solutions, a consulting firm focused on helping companies with sus-tainability issues and product and process development. Kozak is a Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) ISSA Certification Expert (ICE) and an adjunct professor for the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program at Benedictine University’s College of Business. Contact Kozak at Mark@BEAMStrategic. com, and more information about the consulting and support services he offers can be found by visiting www. BEAMStrategic.com. Sustainability means different things to different people. We all have a different perspective on this con-cept, how we can use it, what it means. When a word becomes so popular that you hear it everywhere it means one of two things: The word may be reduced to a meaningless cliché or it is a truly powerful concept. “Green” or “going green” fits into the first cat-egory but sustainability has every right to be con-sidered in the second. Yes, we hear about sustainability in nearly every industry — but that is because at its core it is a simple concept that can be applied everywhere. Sustainability means not taking more than we need, but also, at the same time, being aware of the interdependence between the needs of peo-ple, the planet and businesses making profit. Even with this simplicity, people sometimes have difficulty applying the concept of sustainability. There is confusion and myths and misconcep-tions have developed. The first myth I’d like to discuss and clear up in-volves the basic definition of sustainability. monly used by environmentalists. That leads us to the next misconception. Sustainability Is All About The Environment Sustainability is about the Triple Bottom Line, or the three P’s of sustainability: People, planet, and profit. The triple bottom line implies that all of these concerns must be positive and that they are inter-connected and dependent on each other. You can’t make profit and keep people happy or rewarded while also hurting the environment. Also, you cannot benefit the environment and people while hurting businesses. All must work together and benefit each other to be sustainable. This leads to a related but separate myth. Sustainable Is A Synonym For Green There is overlap between the terms but I believe many people think that green implies natural, or suggests a preference for it. Technology has provided many benefits from so-lar cell energy to electric cars to wind turbines but none of these things are “natural.” People don’t think of nuclear power as green be-cause of the radioactive waste. This alternative energy source has been anath-ema to many environmentalists, but organizations like Greenpeace have become supporters of nucle-ar power because it does not emit harmful gases and it is an efficient source of power. Calling nuclear power green is hard to do, but calling it sustainable is a lot easier. No One Knows What Sustainability Is Sustainability as a concept has been around for a long time, but its modern definition was developed in 1987 by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission). It defined sustainability as “development that meets the needs of the present without compro-mising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Notice that this definition mentions nothing about protecting the environment even though the words sustainable and sustainability are com-for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Energy. For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select BUYERS’ GUIDE from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Sustainability. It’s All About Recycling Recycling is important, but it’s not the most im-pactful component of sustainability. 20 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • September 2013 Image Courtesy of Comstock Images/Thinkstock
CMM – Archives September 2013: 20
