MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Sometimes Sustainability Costs More. So What?

Many smart, strategic business decisions come with a price. Only in sustainability is this considered a problem.

Corporate sustainability efforts are seemingly facing a slump of low enthusiasm, with some tired clichés like “sustainability always costs more” resurfacing. It’s a blunt, unnuanced argument. The business case for sustainability is still sound. Broadly speaking, when done well, sustainability initiatives do one or more of the following: lower costs, reduce risk, drive innovation, raise revenues, and enhance intangible value. In short, investing in sustainability does pay off.

But contrary to what many seem to think, the argument for sustainability is not that it’s easy or always “win-win” in the short run. It’s that it’s strategic and creates value (sometimes short, sometimes long). And sustainability is, by definition, win-win in the longer run; there is no growth for business or the economy on a dying planet with unhealthy people. In areas ravaged and made uninhabitable by climate change — from extreme heat, storms, floods, or rising seas — economic activity essentially stops. Gross domestic product falls to approximately zero.

About the Author

Andrew Winston is a globally recognized expert on how to build resilient, profitable companies that help people and the planet thrive. He is the Thinkers50 third-ranked management thinker in the world and coauthor of Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take (Harvard Business Review Press, 2021).

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