The real business of sustainaility: 10 points from the green gurus

The day your CEO thought would never come has now arrived: green has got cool, sexy and more importantly, profitable. But reading between the lines, how do you tell if it's true green or greenwash?

With so much energy, money and celebrity behind businesses going green, it's sometimes hard to judge what's the real deal, what's promising or what's just shameless opportunism.

Fortunately help is at hand with new research conducted by Forum for the Future, a UK charity committed to sustainable development, and funded by BP.

Nine green business and branding gurus (including William J. Kramer - Director, World Resources Institute, Jonathon Porritt - Founder Director of Forum for the Future and Rita Clifton - Chair of Interbrand) were asked review recent high profile company cases and give the low down on the trend towards sustainable business.

The gurus gave a 10 point summary to help make sense of all the noise as well as providing tips on getting ahead in the race to go green.

1 A real sea change is underway

There are signs of real progress and positive signals of change in an arena once confined to the Body Shop and hippies. Now there's a major shift in mainstream businesses – UK retailers Tesco, M&S and Topshop are all in on the act - along with the luxury end of the market - Duchy Originals, Green and Blacks and even Harrods.

2 Land ahoy... but not docking just yet

Despite progress, the challenges in building a sustainable future are immense. Even the more progressive strategies – such as General Electric's business focused 'Ecomagination' program launch in 2006 - do not fully acknowledge or live up to the scale of change required.

3 Get your house in order first

It's critical to get internal alignment and buy in before external communication. Companies need to look joined up, with no obvious internal contradictions and have both management and staff buy-in before they go public, making claims and commitments. As any good marketer knows, this is integral to building consumer trust and credibility.

4 Take sustainability to the heart

There is a need for full and strategic sustainability integration - to get it into the heart and whole of the organisation. Though this is starting to happen, contradictions remain and it is a key challenge going forward.

5 Delivery and performance is everything

Sustainable business needs to be built on real actions, activities and results with the most convincing examples of sustainable business built on tangible improvements, product or service performance and delivery. Consumers are increasingly savvy over greenwash and public scrutiny is likely to follow this trend. Green products and services have to match their competitors, or be better.

6 Challenge and change the business model

Fundamental questions regarding unsustainable business models need to be addressed before strategies can be fully credible. Question everything and decide if you want to do the same stuff differently, or really do different things.

7 Business, not consumers, in the driving seat

Although consumer interest is increasing, it's not yet strong enough to drive these trends on its own or make up the entire business case. Business strategy can't completely rely on consumer insight or market research. Bold action and leadership is needed from business to drive this change through to the consumer.

8 Rise of the [green] opportunity agenda

Numerous recent high profile cases link sustainability more to the opportunity agenda of business growth and new market development, rather than the traditional territory of risk, reputation and compliance. M&S' Plan A and GE's Ecomagination are the most obvious examples of companies doing this, in showing how to link your business and strategic priorities with sustainability goals.

9 Changing marketing

Sustainable business practices will require, and are already acquiring, new approaches to marketing. There is a perception that agencies lack awareness and need a shift to see more CSR people involved in strategic marketing and planning. Fundamental changes may require a more ideological and strategic shift – such as the rise of a new marketing ethic.

10 And the winner is...

General Electric and M&S were the most mentioned for best practice and leadership – as well as cases that are already commercially benefiting from sustainability.

According to the gurus, HSBC and Unilever are the ones to watch.

Wal-Mart and Tesco were frequently mentioned, though opinions are split on the green reality of the agenda and more evidence of real results is needed before these can be considered serious contenders.

They have the big business buying power potential to make a real difference.

The nine green gurus were: Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director, Forum for the Future and Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission; John Elkington, Founder and Chief Entrepreneur of SustainAbility; Stuart Hart, Professor of Management, Cornell University; Chris Perceval, Corporate Development Manager, Earthwatch Institute; William J. Kramer, Director, World Resources Initiative; Anthony Kleanthous, Senior Policy Advisor, Corporate Accountability and Innovation, WWF; Rita Clifton, Chair, Interbrand; Dan Esty, Director, Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy; Solange Montillaud-Joyel, Sustainability and advertising programme, United Nations Environment Programme.

Visit Forum for the Future's website