Do you consider sustainability an important part of your company's strategy?

This topic comes up occasionally in my consulting practice. In my former corporate roles, involving finance as well as real estate and facilities, I pushed for sustainable practices and LEED certification in our build to suit and new construction arrangements.

I believe yes, Sustainability should be part of your company's corporate strategy. I wrote about this issue in a blog post, on this site (04.16.2012) "Corporate Sustainability - Risk or Opportunity?"

Sustainability has evolved to expect corporations to include a green footprint to how they manage their business. Yes it is and should be the foundation albeit there maybe some tactical decisions taken to maintain market share or leadership position that may not directly contribute to sustainability. Sustainability is directly related to quality earnings and most stakeholders (investor/employees/customers) consider this aspect of a company when making their decisions to invest; accept job offer; buy products / services.

Given that sustainability is about not using up the resources that power your success, it should be part of the company strategy. Including goals for improving resource efficiency and environmental impact often have bottom-line benefits when they're considered as part of the company's strategy that don't occur when only thought through the lens of compliance.

More thoughts about compliant vs strategic sustainability here:
http://sustainabilityadvantage.com/2010/07/27/the-5-stage-sustainability-journey/