Can we put aside our fascination with Socks to become more sustainable in business?
The call and offer were a regular one – a content marketing company had just analysed my website and found it below par. They could guarantee to deliver millions of leads and 1st place globally in SEO content – watch out the Cambridge Inst. for Sustainability Leadership!. The marketing hook this time was a series of free searches to identify keywords. As wet dark autumn afternoons working from home in the UK can be slow affairs, I decided to take up the offer.
The caller then started feeding back the monthly activity level in the UK arising from a specific keywords that I was interested in. I was surprised by the overall interest levels from keywords associated with ‘Business and Sustainability’ so on my last keyword search I decided to set a baseline comparison keyword to compare previous results against. An earlier online distraction looking for stocking fillers for the family may have influenced my choice.
Keyword Search comparison – results are average monthly inquiries made to Google
| Sustainability in business | 101-200 | Socks | 11,500-30,300 |
| Why is sustainability important in business | 0-10 | Socks and sandals | 851-1,700 |
| How to improve business sustainability | 0-10 | Bamboo socks | 11,500-30,300 |
| Role of sustainability in business | 0-10 | Socks for dogs | 501-850 |
| Business sustainability plan | 0-10 | Christmas socks | 1,700–2,900 |
| Benefits of sustainability | 11-50 | Vegan thermal socks | 11-50 |
We’ve all have moments in our life when it seems that the world’s priorities don’t line up with our own. In this case is was comparing the greater interest in ‘socks for dogs’ and surprisingly ‘socks and sandals’ (the latter a candidate for the return of capital punishment for social crimes) than the level of UK internet interest in how sustainability benefits organisations and business activities despite the strong evidence emerging globally.
There is a visible upturn in business community interest into environmental stewardship affairs and the consequences of poor environmental management practices in areas such as single use plastics, energy management and recycling. However in order to extract the greatest value from organisational initiatives, there has to be senior management commitment to greater business sustainability and a clear understanding of their role in leading the business towards greater sustainability as well as in promoting strategic change when sustainability opportunities, issues and risks arise.
To achieve this, the surest route is through the exploration, and adoption of strategic sustainability business models within the business owners, leaders professionals. Executive level decision-makers still lags far behind that of the wider environmental manager community in their understanding of future intangible risks associated with sustainability.
Professional development training and coaching can help break down these knowledge barriers, and allow an opportunity for more detailed examination of what opportunities exist and how the integration of a sustainability business model or strategic plan could fit your ‘future fit’ organisational culture. The other great benefit is that it can allow time and an opportunity for senior managers to understand, reflect on and retain a stronger position when reviewing new initiatives arising within the marketplace – or within the minds of more junior colleagues who now hold an alternative worldview on business’s interaction with society.
Key message: Consider your future sustainability and leadership developmental needs in a key area of future business practice, and can Leading Green help you achieve this?.
On the socks front – am I a bad parent for even considering socks as a present, and is it wrong to feel that I have now at last discovered a Christmas gift for my eco-conscious, vegan and feminist elder daughter – and the dog!