There’s a LOT more to business than just profit. Today’s successful brands care about people and planet too. We discuss how to combine all three in this episode with my guest, Scott Rosenzweig.
Scott is the founder and CEO of Sustainability Core Advisors, which is in the business of fractional sustainability consulting. Scott’s firm helps innovative companies to focus not just on profit, but on People, Planet and Profit. Focusing on all three of these factors – social responsibility, environmental responsibility, and bottom-line profit — can help companies achieve something that’s called the Triple Bottom Line. This has become a desirable goal for businesses of all types in a world that is increasingly demanding sustainability awareness and action.
Scott stumbled into the triple bottom line while looking for someone to help him with it. He spent time at conferences about sustainability in 2016 and 2017 searching for that company. As it turned out, the other CEOs and Presidents he spoke with told him “When you find that company tell me, we’ll hire them too.”
He couldn’t find a company, so he created Sustainability Core Advisors in 2019 to help other people like him. Scott went to five friends and asked them if they would be the test subjects for five pieces of his formula and they agreed. After launching his company and hasn’t looked back since.
The Importance of People
People should come first in any organization, yet all too often, even in today’s business world most companies are still mostly focused on the bottom line, profit. Nothing is wrong with making profit, Scott wants his clients to make a lot of profit. But if you’re not focused on your people, if you’re not taking care of your people, especially in a competitive environment, you won’t be able to hire or retain the right people.
Younger generations are referred to as “The Green Generations”. They’re making purchasing decisions today, in fact collectively, those three generations make up 65% of purchases today. That’s both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). Those three generations look for companies that have a purpose driven mission. They are making purchasing decisions based on companies that do or do not have a purpose driven mission.
People and the culture of those people make up any organization. That is the foundation of any company. At the end of the day, you need the right people and the right culture to be able to pull off a successful business endeavor. Companies that are focused on people, along with planet and profit, are statistically running better companies.
How do you define purpose, what does that mean to you?
Purpose, to Scott, means a company with a mission that takes care of their people. They take care of their customers, they take care of their suppliers, they’re involved in their community. Coming back to the people end of it is if you take care of your people, not just employees but upstream to your suppliers, and it means downstream to your customers, and wholistically it means all of your community, you’re going to be more embraced by all of them. You’re simply going to run a better business. That’s how Scott’s company helps their clients stand out in whatever market they’re in, essentially making them like successful companies with a mission, such as Chipotle.
In this episode we also dive into topics such as:
- WHY younger generations focus so much on purpose-driven companies.
- The societal effects of having, for the first time in history, five generations in the workforce at the same time.
- Where and when to start bringing the concept of “planet” into your business dealings.
- A deeper dive into the Triple Bottom Line and what it means for your business.
- Stories about how companies have positively impacted the plant portion of the Triple Bottom Line.
- The role profit plays alongside people and planet.
- How focusing on people and planet along with profit usually means more profit in the long run.
- How the Triple Bottom Line creates more engagement with individuals and your community.
- How Scott defines “sustainability”.
- How to maintain long term commitment to sustainability and the Triple Bottom Line.
- How embracing sustainability helps you attract and retain great talent.
- How to let the younger generations know what you’re doing for your people and the planet.
- The one thing you need to do above all else to start embracing the Triple Bottom Line.
…and other golden nuggets of advice!
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About the Guest
Scott Rosenzweig is the founder and CEO of Sustainability Core Advisors, which is in the business of fractional sustainability consulting. Scott’s firm helps innovative companies to focus not just on profit, but on People, Planet and Profit. Focusing on all three of these factors – social responsibility, environmental responsibility, and bottom-line profit — can help companies achieve something that’s called the Triple Bottom Line.
This has become a desirable goal for businesses of all types in a world that is increasingly demanding sustainability awareness and action.
Sustainability Core Advisors offers a range of service to help companies achieve that all important Triple Bottom Line. Services include a comprehensive on-site Business Sustainability Assessment to get your company started, B-Corp Certification Assistance, building a company Green Action Team, an Energy and Environmental Audit, strategies for engaging with younger, sustainably-minded customers and employees, how to capitalize on sustainability tax credits and incentives, and much more.
SCA helps companies be more sustainable and more profitable.
Click here to connect with Scott on LinkedIn!
Click here to learn more about Sustainability Core Advisors!
