When Sustainability Conflicts With Business

What do you do when sustainability conflicts with business objectives? No, I'm not talking about the costs of green initiatives and how to fund them in a bad economic environment. I'm talking about a more fundamental conflict.

A good example is Wal-Mart and their personal sustainability projects ("PSP") officially launched last year. PSPs are individual sustainability projects Wal-Mart employees commit to and are wide ranging including things like exercise, diet, carpooling, community service and, of course, corporate sustainability. All of the projects are voluntary and some of them Wal-Mart compensates for (e.g. $1500 to quit smoking). The New York times wrote last year about some of the PSPs and their impact. So here's the dilemma. What do you do if your PSP is to eat less meat and quit smoking, yet you are the buyer/category manager for tobacco or meat? Your personal goal is to use less, but your job is to sell more. Marc Gunther wrote about this conflict on GreenBiz.

These are interesting conflicts and addressing them head on and appropriately is important. Join the discussion on Viridus to learn more about this issue.