Organisational Behaviour: Business Models for a Profitable and Sustainable Future

There is a growing trend for companies to integrate sustainable strategies that require a comprehensive reconfiguration of their daily operations. This is referred to as “embedded sustainability”. Whilst also providing significant reductions in environmental impact, these sustainability strategies result in (a) reduced short term operational costs, (b) reduced exposure to future environmental risk and (c) an improved brand image. This is in contrast to the sustainability actions implemented by the majority of companies currently reducing their environmental impact. These actions typically include solutions that have a short implementation period and only impact on the surface of the company’s operations. This is referred to as “surface sustainability”. “Embedded sustainability” strategies must be deeply integrated in the company’s operations as they directly impact on the behaviour of the organisation’s stakeholders. One drawback is that as a consequence of this stakeholder interaction, these strategies take longer to be implemented and thus require support from all levels of the organisation. The primary purpose of these strategies is to considerably reduce environmental impact, however as a by-product they can achieve significant long term financial results while also yielding reductions in short term operational and capital expenditure. The tangible financial and environmental benefits of these actions are highlighted through a wide range of innovative international case studies. The key concepts discussed in this paper are most applicable to companies that produce tangible products, rather than services companies, and thus consume materials and manage a supply chain. It is anticipated that the majority of the lessons learned from the case studies are adaptable and scalable and thus can be transferred across organisations.