Sustainable Innovation
The word eco comes from the Greek word oikos – meaning home. And we use it in economy and ecology because you can’t make a profit on a dead planet.
Plastigeddon! Packaging hell! CSR to CSV. Suddenly doing good is the new cool. This generation (tale end of Millenials and start of Gen Z) want more from you. Want you to care more, use less resources, pollute less, but still sell them things at the same price. I welcome this new-found zeal for sustainability, even though the science is sometimes missing (not all plastic is bad, it’s what we do with it that makes it bad – or good). Having a purpose, giving a damn, building companies that care for more than profit is fast becoming normal as the old way of doing business, The Apprentice way of doing business, is dying with the dinosaurs that bought it in. Built-in not bolted-on is now normal. The circular economy is the only economy. I’m good at sustainability. I should be. I’ve been doing it for years. I see economy and ecology as one thing. At the last count I had saved my clients over £125,000,000 from the environmental work I’ve done with them (that’s an annual figure).
I tried to introduce Plan A in 2000 when working for Asda. Too revolutionary, too early. I set up the UK’s first green business club in 1992, ran the UK’s first supply-chain environmental programme in 1996, delivered a project that linked quality and environment that received plaudits from HRH Prince Charles, was an early player in the Ethical Trading Initiative, and am an alumni of the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry. I have worked with Amazon, John Lewis, Samsung, Unilever, P&G, Thorntons, Innocent, Kyocera, Orangebox and the RSA on sustainability projects.
With galloping population growth, the “bourgeoisification” of the world population and the strategic challenges of resource supply we have to change what we do and how we do it. This isn’t about austerity. It’s about getting more value with less input. This is good for business. This is good for us.
I build effective sustainability strategies that uses sustainability as a stimulus for innovation rather than a brake. One of the team at John Lewis said of my sustainability training: “Mark ran a series of workshops for John Lewis that one partner described as ‘the best two hours of my John Lewis career’. Need I say more? His boundless energy and enthusiasm left a lasting affect on our directorate. If you are looking for someone who will shake up perspectives and change mindsets then Mark is your man! “