The Benefits of Sustainability-Driven Innovation

What connects corporate sustainability with business profits? According to our 2012 global executive survey on sustainability, an important factor is business model innovation. Managers who say that their company's sustainability activities have added to the company's profits are more than twice as likely to say that sustainability has caused their organization to change their business model than not. The sustainability story at Grief, a leading manufacturer of industrial packaging, illustrates the importance of business model innovation and several other key findings from our survey. Scott Griffin is chief sustainability officer at Grief, a 135-year-old global industrial packaging company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio that had net sales of $4.2 billion in 2011. Griffin says there are four keys to Grief's sustainability agenda, which has become central to the companys overall business operations and strategy. One is top management attention to sustainability. One reason sustainability works here at Grief is high-level, strong executive commitment, says Griffin. Unlike many chief sustainability officers, Griffin reports directly to the CEO and is a member of the company executive strategy team. Another key to Grief's approach to sustainability is collaboration. In the past three years, Grief has collaborated more with customers and nongovernmental organizations because of sustainability-related issues.