Blood, Gore, and Sustainable Capitalism

By Walker Larsen

Al Gore and David Blood’s recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, “A Manifesto for Sustainable Capitalism,” makes an important point at an important time: businesses should focus on long-term growth strategies rather than the current practice of trying to make a quick buck. Our experience at CLF Ventures has shown that to orient itself to long-term success, a company must first identify its risks and opportunities, then develop a sustainable change strategy. We’ve developed Life Cycle Scanning (LC Scan™) as a high-level screening tool to help companies identify sustainability hot spots and start on the path to long-term success. We do this by working directly with company leadership to identify strategies for sustainable change and to facilitate practical solutions that advance the company’s bottom line through improvements to environmental and social performance.

As Blood and Gore suggest, incorporating environmental, social, and governance metrics across the life cycle of a company’s physical inputs and products can help improve economic performance, enhance public image and competitive position, and mitigate risks. By shifting from a business-as-usual focus on short-term profits to a strategy for sustainable change, argue Blood and Gore, a company will be forced to consider the long-term environmental impacts of its business decisions as well as how those environmental impacts affect the company’s bottom line.

As Blood and Gore write, “Those who advocate for sustainable capitalism are often challenged to spell out why sustainability adds value. Yet the question that should be asked instead is: ‘Why does an absence of sustainability not damage companies, investors and society at large?’ From BP to Lehman Brothers, there is a long list of examples proving that it does.”

Sustainable capitalism produces durable businesses with robust supply chains; it is designed to enhance stability despite volatile markets and shifting environmental conditions. By re-orienting short-term profit goals to long-term sustainability goals, business performance is enhanced for many, many years.

Sustainability doesn’t have to be all “blood and gore.” If your company is looking for a strategy for sustainable change that is low-pain and high-return, please email CLF Ventures CEO Jo Anne Shatkin (JAshatkin@clf.org) to find out how CLF Ventures can help.