Recommended Approach Balances Needs of Investors, Society and the Environment
SAN JOSE, CAlif. and LONDON--(Marketwire - January 15, 2008) - Organisations that wish to grow profitably in the future must focus their efforts to benefit shareholders, society and the environment simultaneously. Concentrating on any one of these areas at the expense of the other two may compromise a business's long-term success. A focus on sustainability provides the best means to implement this triple-pronged strategy simultaneously, enabling organisations to innovate, differentiate themselves and succeed.

These are the key conclusions of a new paper published today by a group of international academic experts on corporate responsibility and sustainability, which offers a new approach to how sustainability can build innovation and global collaboration across organisations. The paper, "A New Mindset for Corporate Sustainability," was sponsored by Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and BT. Drawn from respected institutions in China, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and United States, the academics offer business leaders concise advice based on a systematic appraisal of case studies, including Cemex, Marks & Spencer and Shenzhen Water, and prevailing academic thinking on the subject worldwide. The paper also outlines the 10 steps required for organisations to become sustainability-driven innovators.*

Offering a new approach, which the academics have named S²AVE (Shareholder and Social Added Value with Environmental Restoration), emphasises the role of sustainability in increasing innovation across the business and maintains that sustainability should be a strategy rather than an objective. It concludes that the achievement of sustainability goals does not require extensive re-engineering of the corporate structure. Instead, it requires conviction and vision at the very highest levels of the organisation so that a set of values coherent with corporate responsibility and sustainability are instilled throughout.

While the academic team met in person several times, no international travel was required. Using Cisco TelePresence, the high-definition virtual meeting solution, the group was able to come together and discuss their research as though in a conventional face-to-face meeting, whilst reducing travel so as to minimise any negative environmental effects of the collaboration.

The following experts were involved in producing the paper:
-- Professor David Grayson, director, Doughty Centre for Corporate
Responsibility, Cranfield School of Management
-- Professor Zhouying Jin, director, Center for Technology Innovation and
Strategy Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; chairman, Future
500, China
-- Dr Mark Lemon, Centre for Resource Management and Efficiency,
Cranfield University
-- Dr Miguel Angel Rodriguez, director of the Base of the Pyramid
Learning Lab, and Lecturer in General Management, IESE Business School,
University of Navarra, Spain
-- Professor Sarah Slaughter, senior lecturer, Behavioral and Policy
Sciences, Sloan Management School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
-- Professor Simon Tay, Singapore Institute for International Affairs,
National University of Singapore

lees voor meer info op; To download the paper visit www.biggerthinking.com/sustainability/innovation.