Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

Sustainability as a Business Strategy
Consumers today want a better quality of life and be more active in making the world a better place. They want to support companies – big, small and in between – that demonstrate strong ethics and stewardship of human beings and the planet.
This desire to make a positive impact translates into a key concept in today’s business world: sustainability. Sustainability as a business strategy is becoming increasingly appealing to managers, executives and business owners, and more businesses and organizations are driving change – and success – with sustainable business goals.
Sustainability in business is the ability of an organization to thrive over time in a way that protects and replenishes resources.
that government and industry needed to practice more environmental and social responsibility.

Since then, sustainability in business has driven value. Harvard Business Review reports that companies that have sustainable business practices experience greater risk management, more innovation and better financial performance, including larger profits, more cost savings and improved efficiencies and logistics. Moreover, sustainable businesses benefit from improved customer loyalty.

“sustainability has emerged to a prominent position in corporate and consumer consciences.”

authentically sustainable, purpose-driven brands and the people-planet-profit model are winning across the board – economically and socially.
this approach is about finding opportunities to build competitive advantage across three areas of an organization: Net financial, Environmental and Social impacts

Sustainable marketing is a critical part of operating a sustainable business.
“[Sustainable marketing is the] process of creating, communicating and delivering value to customers in such a way that both natural (resources nature provides) and human (resources people provide) capital are preserved or enhanced throughout.”

Believing that marketing has “great potential as a force for creating cultural change,” Martin and Schouten set out to illustrate that marketing has two imperatives: to market sustainably and to market sustainability.

Market sustainably is an inward practice that ensures all marketing processes are environmentally and socially benign.

Market sustainability is an outward practice that helps bring about a society in which striving for sustainability is the norm.

A good way to practice sustainable marketing is to be committed to honesty in marketing messaging and sustainability claims.
Here are the five principles of sustainable marketing that you can embrace today and put to work in your organization:

Consumer-oriented marketing
Consumer-oriented marketing means that the company or organization view its marketing strategy from the consumer’s point of view.
(We’ve already got this one covered with the inbound marketing methodology! )
Customer value marketing
Customer value marketing entails putting most efforts and resources into continuously improving the value added to the offering. As the company creates value for the customer, the customer in turn creates value for the company. Sustainable!
Innovative marketing
The principle of innovative marketing ensures that an organization never stops finding better ways to develop products, services and better ways to market. Those that ignore innovation will lose customers to those that find better and better ways.
Sense-of-mission marketing
Sense-of-mission marketing is the principle that guides a firm to define a broad mission that speaks to society rather than just the product. Adopting a broad mission gives a company a clear, long-term direction and serves the best long-run interests of consumers and the brand.
Societal marketing
With the principle of societal marketing, the company balances decisions based on the customer wants, the company requirements, and the customer and society’s long-term interests. For example, Method home products put the ‘hurt on dirt without doing harm to people, creatures or the planet’. Innovative companies look ahead to potential societal issues as opportunities.
Sustainable marketing goes beyond the concern for the needs and wants of today’s society, but focuses on the well-being of all stakeholders and the broader world.

In turn, this mega-trend in business is rewarded with competitive advantage by earning the trust and loyalty of consumers. Win-win!