If environmentalists were better at explaining their arguments, “Sustainability” would be described as what it really is- An extremely efficient business paradigm, not an airhead, blue-sky rhetorical exercise as it’s inaccurately presented in the media. Sustainability is really very much cost-based, and it’s designed on 
very strong industrial principles. One of the best examples of sustainability can be found in of all places the flooring industry, a traditionally capital-intensive, high value market.
Sustainability overview
The objectives of sustainability are extremely practical:
- Locking in long term sustainable access to resources for industries- This is where the term “sustainability” originated, and it’s one of the key components of the rest of the sustainable business concepts. In many cases, production of organic materials has proven to be a much more reliable and far cheaper cost option for industries.
- Improved manufacturing processes, reducing waste in production- This is one of the environmental issues, but routinely overlooked is a business issue- Waste at any stage in production means cost increases. Less waste means less cost, and waste by any definition means production inefficiency.
- Recyclability- This part of the process relates to materials recovery for commercial reuse. Done efficiently, it reduces costs to manufacturers and creates extra resources. Again, waste does the exact opposite, making manufacturers vulnerable to commodity prices.
These are the basic stages of product cycling from sourcing through production and sale and back to the manufacturer. You will have noted that cost is integral to each of these stages and is one of the defining success criteria.
Sustainability, in fact, is a development of a fundamental industrial design principle- Create the most cost-efficient model of your product. Sustainability has simply extended the logic, incorporating everything from sourcing to reuse of materials, while emphasizing the need for production efficiency.
Case study- The flooring industry
One of the best examples of production and market-effective sustainability in practice is in the US carpet manufacturing industry.
This industry was suffering from severe problems:
- Carpets were very expensive to manufacture, using up power and water on a colossal scale.
- Outdated products
- Manufacturers were subject to commodity prices, because the carpets were largely petroleum-based products.
- Carpets couldn’t be recycled. They became landfill, quite useless to manufacturers, and there was no possibility of sourcing materials from used products.
These are all cost-based issues. The manufacturers were stuck with a production system which effectively worked against them and added costs at all stages of the cycle, which was based on acquisition of commodity-based resources rather than a holistic cycle.
The solution was a sustainable approach. Sourcing high quality renewable materials, better and more customizable manufacturing processes and recycling reversed the old methodology and started saving money through the entire supply chain. One major US carpet manufacturer estimated that in a ten year period, they saved half a billion dollars through improved use of water in production alone.
Sustainability and profitability are inseparable. Better methods and better cost base structures will always beat competition and safeguard the bottom line better than “business as usual”.
The future of commerce will be based on sustainability. It’s the natural laws of business, incarnate.